MIRI: A man had a close shave when he uncovered a World War II bomb while digging holes near his house to grow coconut trees.

The harrowing find was made on Sunday afternoon around 3.30pm in Kampung Pengkalan Lutong when Chai Woei En was digging several holes where he plans to build his future house.

“At first, I thought it was scrap metal buried inside but then I got suspicious. I then called up my neighbour to inspect the find,” said 33-year-old Chai.

He and his neighbour Abdul Hamid Mahari could not ascertain if the discovery was a bomb or ordinary scrap metal, so they called up police.

A mobile police vehicle (MPV) dashed to the scene around 5.30pm and on inspection, confirmed the ‘item’ to be a 5kg bomb measuring 38cm long and 11cm in diameter.

The police immediately cordoned off the area for public safety before deciding to detonate the bomb the next day (yesterday).

At around 11am, two personnel from the Miri bomb squad unit, assisted by three officers from Bintulu, detonated the bomb – which could have been extremely dangerous when building the new house, averting a deadly construction ‘boom’ for the owner.