This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A worried resident in Germany alerted police to what he thought was a second world war bomb in his garden. Officers found … a particularly large zucchini.

Police were summoned to the scene in Bretten, near the south-western city of Karlsruhe, on Thursday morning by a worried 81-year-old man.

They said in a statement Friday that officers determined “the object, which really did look very like a bomb” was actually a 40cm (nearly 16in) courgette.

The offending vegetable, which was very dark in color, weighed about 5kg (11lbs). Police believe someone threw it over a hedge into the garden.

Unexploded wartime bombs are unearthed frequently during construction work in Germany, often forcing authorities to evacuate residents while they are defused.