An unexploded Second World War bomb found at a property in Plymouth will be removed and transported by military convoy through the city for disposal at sea.
Any resident of the Devon city living within 300 metres of the convoy route will need to evacuate their home between the hours of 2pm and 5pm this afternoon.
Photos from the site where the device was dug up show the size of the explosive, as homeowners were warned their homes would be “destroyed” if it detonated.
Bomb disposal experts say a controlled explosion was considered but ruled out.
The “safest and least impactful option” is to “remove the device from St Michael Avenue and travel to the Torpoint Ferry slipway – for the bomb to be disposed of at sea (beyond the Breakwater)”.
The authorities added: “Highly trained bomb disposal experts will carefully remove the device from the property and it will be transported by road in a military convoy, west along Parkside and Royal Navy Avenue, joining at the junction on Saltash Road to continue south joining Albert Road, turning right along Park Avenue and heading down Ferry Road to the Torpoint Ferry terminal.”
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The owner of the property where the bomb was found on St Michael Avenue in Keyham previously said he was carrying out building works in his garden when the explosive was uncovered by rain.
He reported the possible explosive to Devon and Cornwall Police, who declared a “major incident” on Tuesday and evacuated properties within 200 metres.
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In an update on Thursday morning, Plymouth Council said the cordon had been extended to 309 metres, affecting 1,219 properties and an estimated 3,250 people.
Royal Naval Bomb Disposal experts have since dug around the explosive and used a special device to assess it.
Owner warned ‘houses were going to be destroyed’
The man who found the device in his garden also told Plymouth Live he has been told to prepare for the worst-case scenario should the bomb explode.
“Last night my daughter and her two neighbours were brought together for a meeting where they were effectively told to prepare that all three houses were going to be destroyed,” he told the outlet on Thursday evening.
“We understand the EOD have carried out X-rays of the bomb and the fuses and sent off the information to a more senior bomb expert to analyse. I spoke with a major who said the decision on what they’ll do is being made much higher up.”
He added that his family and their neighbours have been allowed to enter the properties to gather their belongings.
Hospital declares critical incident
On Thursday at 9pm, NHS Devon declared a critical incident over the Keyham bomb, with the health board – which includes Derriford Hospital – reassuring residents it is a “standard precautionary measure” to ensure it has the resources to deal with any potential aftermath of an explosion.
Plymouth City Council said in a statement: “Declaring critical incident status for the county’s health services can make it easier for local NHS partners to work together to take the necessary steps to manage NHS resources to meet local demands.”
University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust is “separately, experiencing severe pressures on their services currently”, the council added.
Sky News spoke to residents affected by the cordon, with a local mechanic from Wayne’s Mobile Mechanic Ltd saying “it’s been a very scary moment for myself, my wife and three children”.
When asked what the reaction of the community has been, he said: “It’s unbelievable and very scary as we live yards from the scene.”
Plymouth saw more than 50 bombing attacks during the Second World War, and in 2011 an explosive device was unearthed by a workman at a building in Notte Street, near the city’s Hoe.
The device was made safe before it was moved to the seabed off Plymouth Sound, with an exclusion zone around it.
Rishi Sunak has urged Tories to stick with his leadership despite the Conservatives’ shock defeat in the West Midlands mayoral election, which capped a dire few days of results for the party.
The margin of victory was a cruelly tight 1,508 votes, and compounded Conservative disappointment as it followed another loss to Sadiq Khan in London, who secured a record-breaking third term as the capital’s mayor.
“People across the country have had enough of Conservative chaos and decline and voted for change with Labour. Our fantastic new mayor Richard Parker stands ready to deliver a fresh start for the West Midlands,” Sir Keir said.
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‘Devastated’ Andy Street refuses to blame Sunak after West Midlands defeat
However, in an effort to win back those who had deserted his party over Labour’s stance on Gaza, he added: “I say directly to those who may have voted Labour in the past but felt that on this occasion that they couldn’t that across the West Midlands we are a proud and diverse community.
“I have heard you. I have listened. And I am determined to meet your concerns and to gain your respect and trust again in the future.”
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Labour suffered losses to independents and George Galloway’s Worker’s Party of Britain in areas with large Islamic populations as a result of the war between Israel and Hamas.
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3:02
Starmer speaks at East Midlands victory rally
But the party virtually swept the mayoral elections board across England, winning in Liverpool, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, and in Greater Manchester, where Andy Burnham returned to power.
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The Tees Valley was the only remaining splash of blue left on the mayoral election map, where Lord Ben Houchen managed to cling to power despite a huge 14.1-point swing to Labour.
Lord Houchen’s victory was also mired by allegations he had sought to distance himself from Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party at large during his campaign.
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Sadiq Khan re-elected as London Mayor
Losing Mr Street, who is widely respected in the Tory Party and had an impressive track record of bringing investment into the West Midlands, is a body blow to the prime minister.
Despite the drubbing, Mr Sunak urged his party to stick with his leadership and his plan for government.
In a statement, he said: “It’s been disappointing of course to lose dedicated Conservative councillors and Andy Street in the West Midlands, with his track record of providing great public services and attracting significant investment to the area, but that has redoubled my resolve to continue to make progress on our plan.
“So we will continue working as hard as ever to take the fight to Labour and deliver a brighter future for our country.”
However, Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, was quick to lay the blame for Tory losses firmly at the door of Number 10.
But she said ousting Mr Sunak “won’t work”, adding: “The hole to dig us out of is the PM’s, and it’s time for him to start shovelling.”
She urged him to adopt “strong leadership, not managerialism” on tax, migration, small boats, and law and order.
But Mr Street took a different view, encouraging the party not to veer to the right.
Asked if he is worried the party is drifting to the right and over-emphasising the threat from Reform UK while “ignoring other voters”, the outgoing mayor told Sky News: “I would definitely not advise that drift.
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“The psychology here is really very straightforward, isn’t it? This is the youngest, most diverse, one of the most urban places in Britain, and we’ve done, many would say, extremely well over a consistent period,” Mr Street said.
“The message is clear: winning from that centre ground is what happens.”
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1:13
‘We will give this region a fresh start’ – Labour’s Richard Parker
Results are in from 106 of the 107 councils in England that held elections on 2 May, and Labour has won 1,140 seats, an increase of more than 200.
The Liberal Democrats beat the Tories into second place, winning 521 seats, up nearly 100.
The Tories were just behind on 513 seats, down nearly 400.
Tory incumbent Andy Street has suffered a shock defeat to Labour in the West Midlands mayoral election after a partial recount was ordered.
Labour’s Richard Parker beat Mr Street by just 1,508 votes – 0.25% – to deliver a major blow to Rishi Sunak in the key electoral battleground after a hammering in the local elections.
With the race neck-and-neck, in the end it came down to the results in one borough – Labour-supporting Sandwell.
“This is the most important thing I will ever do,” Mr Parker said in his acceptance speech.
“I promise you that I will deliver jobs,” he added.
He told Sky News he would take buses “back into public control” and deliver the “largest programme of social housing we’ve had in this region for more than 40 years”.
And he thanked his predecessor, who he said had “led this region through a number of great challenges and you deserve great credit for that”.
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Mr Street told Sky News he was “personally devastated”, had “put my all into this”, and “genuinely believed we were making real progress across the region”.
He said it was “my campaign, totally”, adding: “I’m not going to try to push responsibility anywhere else. There’ll be no sloping shoulders from me.”
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He wished his successor “all strength and wisdom”.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was a “phenomenal result” and “beyond our expectations”.
He added: “People across the country have had enough of Conservative chaos and decline and voted for change with Labour.
“My changed Labour Party is back in the service of working people, and stands ready to govern.”
Ellie Reeves, Labour’s deputy national campaign co-ordinator, said it was a “significant victory”.
She added: “Right across the country people have voted for change and the message is clear – it’s time for a general election and a Labour government to get our country’s future back.”
These results will increase pressure on the prime minister, who had been hoping for a repeat of the success enjoyed by Conservative Ben Houchen who held on as the mayor of Tees Valley.
Sam Coates, Sky News’s deputy political editor, said he had seen messages from Conservative MPs’ WhatsApp group.
One from former cabinet minister Simon Clarke, whom Coates said “wants Rishi Sunak to leave”, said: “These results are awful and should be a massive wake-up call.
“If we fight the same campaign in a few months [in the general election] we’ll get the same outcome or rather worse.
“Reform UK standing more candidates will cause greater damage.”
The loss of either the Teesside or West Midlands mayoralties would give Tory rebels who want to change leader a “huge amount of fuel”, former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said in the Electoral Dysfunction podcast.
Mr Street, who was seeking a third term in office, sought to distance himself from the Conservative brand during his campaign and instead ran on a personal platform.
Sky News recently revealed that Mr Street was sending out election literature with an endorsement from former prime minister Boris Johnson which urged people to “forget about the government”.
His campaign website also made no mention of Mr Sunak on its homepage and was coloured in green rather than Conservative blue.
It was the first time any candidate for London mayor has won a third term in office, with Mr Khan’s predecessors Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone both having served two terms.
As he took to the stage to make his victory speech, the re-elected mayor was booed and heckled with a shout of “Khan killed London” by the far-right Britain First candidate, who received fewer votes than Count Binface.
Speaking at City Hall, Mr Khan said: “We faced a campaign of non-stop negativity, but I couldn’t be more proud that we answered the fearmongering with facts, hate with hope, and attempts to divide with efforts to unite.
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“We ran a campaign that was in keeping with the spirit and values of this great city, a city that regards our diversity not as a weakness, but as an almighty strength – and one that rejects right hard-wing populism and looks forward, not back.”
He also thanked his family for their support, but apologised for them having to deal with “protests by our home” and “threats”.
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While congratulating Mr Khan on his victory, Ms Hall said he should stop “patronising” people who care about London.
When she had previously challenged him in a mayoral debate about “gangs running around with machetes” in the capital, he had said she should “stop watching The Wire” – a gritty US-based crime drama.
In her concession speech, she said: “The thing that matters the most, and to me, is reforming the Met and making London safe again. I hope Sadiq makes this his top priority.
“He owes it to the families of those thousands of people who have lost lives to knife crime under his mayoralty.
“And I hope too that he stops patronising people, like me, who care. This isn’t an episode of The Wire, this is real life on his watch.”
The pair had repeatedly clashed during the campaign, fought out amid concerns about knife crime and the handling of pro-Palestinian marches in the capital.
Just recently, Mr Khan had described his Conservative rival as the “most dangerous candidate I have fought against” over her past social media activity.
Hitting back, Ms Hall said she had “learnt” from her mistakes and branded his comment “outrageous”.
A clear dividing line between the candidates had been Mr Khan’s controversial expansion of the ultra low emission zone (ULEZ), which has been the subject of ongoing protests and which Ms Hall had pledged to scrap.
During the race, the Conservatives were forced to delete a clip used in an advert against Mr Khan’s record on crime after it emerged it used footage of a stampede at a New York subway station.
Meanwhile, Labour has made gains across the country, winning the Blackpool South by-election with a 26% swing from the Tories and taking control of councils in key battleground areas.
The party also picked up new mayoralties, including the critical regions of East Midlands and York and North Yorkshire, which includes Mr Sunak’s Richmond constituency.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “This is effectively the last stop on the journey to the general election and I am really pleased to be able to show we are making progress, we have earned the trust and confidence of voters and we are making progress towards that general election.”
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Mr Sunak has taken consolation in the Conservative victory in the Tees Valley mayoral race, which was retained by Lord Houchen and seems to be enough to calm rumblings among discontented Tory MPs.
However, the crunch contest for West Midlands mayor remains on a knife-edge.
Labour has also not had it all its own way, losing control of councils in Oldham and Kirklees after victories for independent candidates opposing the party’s stance on Gaza.
Labour also lost seats on other councils including Bristol, where the Greens extended its lead as the largest party and could now be set to run the city council despite narrowly failing to win outright control.
Notably, all 14 councillors in the newly created Bristol Central constituency are now Green, where the party is looking to unseat Labour’s shadow culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire at the general election.