Residents from the Kennaway Estate may have been living next to an unexploded Second World War bomb for decades, after a gardener found one on the site.

Met Police officers, including the bomb disposal unit, were called to the estate in Stoke Newington Church Street at around 3pm today.

According to emergency response officer Insp Thomas Vie, the foot-long explosive was found while work was being carried out next to the Sandale Close block.

He said: “In situations like this we usually come down. Bomb disposal did come down, and they found the device had no charge. Even at that size, if it was viable it could have caused a lot of damage.

“There was no danger,” he said.

Police believe that the bomb was kept by someone after the war, rather than it being dropped by aircraft between 1940 and 1945.

The discovery closed Church Street, and some residents were temporarily evacuated.

The device has been taken away by the Met’s bomb disposal experts.