‘It’s been scary’: relief in Plymouth as German bomb is floated out to sea

Residents tell of consternation and community spirit after discovery and removal of 500kg second world war explosive

• Plymouth bomb disposal: latest updates

Usually as the weekend approaches, the streets, shops and pubs around Devonport, the largest naval dockyard in western Europe, hum with life.

But an eerie hush fell on the area on Friday after more than 10,000 people were evacuated from homes and workplaces so that a second-world-war bomb dropped on Plymouth by the Luftwaffe 80 years ago could be extracted from a back garden.