A scuba diver who dredged up a live mortar from the bottom of the sea drove around with it in his car for two days before handing it in.

Tony Mills eventually took the device to Littlehampton police station, which had already been evacuated the night before when someone else handed in an unexploded bomb.

The station was emptied for the second night in a row and surrounding streets cordoned off while bomb disposal experts built a barrier of sandbags on the beach and blew up the device.

Police carried on working from a nearby major incident suite during the drama on Tuesday.

Mr Mills, 48, of West Way, Wick, near Littlehampton, had been diving near Littlehampton pier when he discovered the bomb in the water. He said: "I knew it was something from the war because it was rusty. I didn't know it was live.

"I've been scuba diving for years and often scratch about the sea bed and pull things out.

"I wanted to keep it for myself. I was going to clean it up for my dad but my mate said I should check it out with the police."

Just 24 hours earlier, 29-year-old labourer Steve Aurelius brought in a mortar shell he had found on Highdown Hill, near Ferring.

Littlehampton station was evacuated before a bomb squad arrived and took the device away for disposal.

Mr Aurelius, who lives in Roundstone Drive, East Preston, said: "I found a bomb when I was 14 and me and my mate tossed it to each other. We were young and silly in those days."

Mr Aurelius said he believed his latest bomb was, in fact, a dud used during a war-time exercise.

He said: "I'll take the police advice from now on and leave these things where I find them."

In July, Chichester police station and surrounding streets were sealed when a heavily corroded German hand grenade was brought in.

In June, the police station was at the centre of a similar scare when a member of the public handed in several explosive devices found in the street.

Police urged people finding suspicious objects not to touch them but to call them immediately.