A schoolboy has been praised for catching what he thought was a bomb as it dropped to the floor in a fast food restaurant.

James Stenning leaped to catch the device, made of a clock and wires, as it slipped off a hand drier in the toilets of McDonald's in London Road, Brighton.

The 11-year-old took it into the restaurant to show his friend James Fairhall, 11, and the pair handed over the look-alike explosive to shocked staff.

Police cordoned off part of London Road for three hours while bomb disposal officers carried out a controlled explosion.

The device proved to be a fake.

James' mother Julia said she was horrified when her son came home and told her he had saved the restaurant from a bomb.

She said: "The police really praised both of them for staying so cool and confident and helping them locate it.

"I am proud of them, but I was shocked."

James, of Beaconsfield Road, Portslade, and James Fairhall, of Hollingbury Road, Brighton, were also thanked by restaurant staff.

Manager Angie McGowan said: "They are quite the little heroes."

A McDonald's spokeswoman said the boys and their families had been invited for a meal to say thank you.