A wartime bomb pulled out of the Kennet & Avon Canal by a Trowbridge teenager has been destroyed in a controlled explosion.
Military sources said the two feet long artillery round was a three-inch shrapnel shell.
It was most likely British-made and dated back to around 1940, said Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Wade, from the British Army Land Forces headquarters in Andover.
He said: “The percussion cap had been struck but it had not detonated.
“The Army bomb disposal team from Tidworth conducted a controlled explosion to make the ammunition and the area safe.”
The shrapnel shell was pulled out of the canal on Saturday by 15-year-old Ryan Bedford, a Year 10 pupil at John O’ Gaunt School in Trowbridge.
He had been magnet fishing with his father Ross, 39, from Seymour Road, Trowbridge.
The pair pulled the shell out of the water near the Whaddon Lane canal bridge in Hilperton.
Lt-Col Wade said there was “no reason to believe” there are other shells in the canal at that point.
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