Fears over a possible unexploded bomb in a Keighley garden led to homes being evacuated.

The scare temporarily affected at least seven homes in the Braithwaite Road area early yesterday morning.

Army bomb disposal experts were called from Catterick Camp to investigate the suspicious object, which is understood to have been found in the garden of a house in Braithwaite Road.

Police officers cordoned off a section of this road and alerted the ambulance service.

However, the bomb team gave the all-clear shortly before 10am after examining photographs of the object that were sent to Catterick by Keighley police. Braithwaite Road was re-opened and the army personnel removed the object. A police spokesman said reports were first received at 6.48am yesterday about what appeared to be a Second World War-era shell in the garden.

Commenting shortly after the all-clear was given, he said: “Seven or eight houses were initially evacuated.

The cordon is now down, the road has re-opened, and people have been allowed to return to their houses. The bomb disposal team are coming to collect the object and they are expected to arrive shortly.

“We sent photographs to them so they could do an assessment, and they deemed the object wasn’t hazardous.”

Keighley West district Councillor Jan Smithies, who lives in nearby Braithwaite Village, said she learned about the incident when she saw police activity close to her home. “I gave the police my ID and asked if I could help,” she added.

“They told me they would need to evacuate homes if the object turned out to be dangerous, so I contacted the key holders of Laycock Village Hall and Braithwaite New Church Hall and they agreed to be on standby to receive residents if necessary.

“Fortunately they didn’t have to do that, but I’d like to thank them, because it was quite early in the morning when I rang them.

“I don’t know what exactly had been found, but the people from Catterick did take it away with them, so it must have been some kind of ordnance.”