A POLICE station was evacuated when two water company workers walked up to the front counter and handed in a three-foot rocket.

Bomb squad officers were today searching the moors above Rossendale looking for a wartime munitions dump after the incident, yesterday evening.

Bacup police station was evacuated while officers waited for the bomb squad from Liverpool to collect the device.

It was then ferried to the moors above Sharneyford where it was blown up in a controlled explosion at 8.45pm.

Inspector Steve Baines, head of policing in Bacup, said: "At 6.45pm yesterday two men came into Bacup police station carrying what looked like a 3ft mortar shell.

"It was in a very decayed state, covered in rust and damaged.

"They said they had been working on the moors above the Red Lion Pub in Shawforth digging a trench when they found the round and decided to bring it to the police station.

"Realising the danger this posed, we took it outside the police station and deposited it on the footpath, evacuated the station and cordoned off a 100 yard area around the police station." Bomb squad officers, firefighters and paramedics were called to the station and went in convoy to the moors above Sharneyford.

Insp Baines said: "The Bomb Squad identified it as a rocket and said it could have been a practice round or a high explosive but it was difficult to say because of its decayed state.

"They made the decision to take it up to Sharneyford and carry out a controlled explosion.

"We have told the men they must cease working on the moors.

"There have been various reports of a munitions dump in that vicinity and members of the bomb squad were checking Landgate Moor out today."

Insp Baines said the workers had put the device in their van and driven it to the police station, but he advised anyone else finding a similar device to leave it in place and call out the police.

He also urged people to stay away from the moors where the rocket was found.

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