London gardener unearths unexploded bomb (VIDEO)

An unexploded World War II bomb was discovered and detonated after a father-of-two made the unexpected find in the back garden of his £1.2 million home in North London.

Marcus Fairs, 47, discovered the 70-year-old bomb while planting a bamboo screen in his back garden.

His wife and two children were home when the discovery was made. The mortar “weighed the same as a bag of sugar,” said Fairs.

The family and their neighbors were ordered to relocate to the front rooms of their homes whilst explosives officers (EXPOs) removed the device as quickly as possible, before closing Clissold Park early on Sunday afternoon to carry out a controlled explosion.

“I was digging away putting in some black bamboo to screen the back fence,” Fairs told the Daily Mail.

“I had dug up a lot of bricks already, because, ironically, there had been an air raid shelter at the back of the garden. I was really going for it with the shovel and hit something that was metal and then I hit it again.”

“When I first saw it, I just knew it was a bomb and I was really excited. It was about a foot long,” he added.

At this point, Fairs picked up the ancient bomb, took a picture of it and posted it on Twitter asking what to do.

Speaking to RT, Fairs said his 8-year-old daughter “got really upset and started crying because she was scared daddy was going to get blown up.”

“Our area was heavily bombed by the Germans during World War II,” Fairs told RT.

“The police explosives expert thinks it’s a three-inch mortar round, so it was not dropped from a plane, it would have been fired from the ground.”

“It could even be a British bomb smuggled home by a serviceman on leave.”

He told the Daily Mail he felt “a bit nonchalant about it.” The drama didn’t stop him from finishing his gardening, as he was unsure whether the family would be evacuated.

“Within five minutes there were three squad cars here,” he said.

“My family were a bit nervous about it because they didn't know what was going to happen.”

“When the police were examining it in the garden it was a light-hearted atmosphere, but when the bomb squad guys turned up things went a bit hush hush.”

Fairs said he began to feel a bit left out, but found the whole situation “exciting.”

He later posted an image of the exact place in Clissold Park where the bomb was destroyed.

“The dark patch is the crater, which has been filled in recently. The white bits are remains of special water-filled bags they placed on top of the bomb to contain the explosion,” he explained.

The controlled blast was caught on camera by Clissold House CCTV.

“This has been the highlight of my gardening career,” said Fairs.