Mace workers find 5,000 spent anti-aircraft shells

Thousands of wartime anti-aircraft shells have been discovered by Mace workers building offices at a business estate in Oxfordshire.

The workers called police on Tuesday after uncovering five of the shells during excavation work, but the pile has since grown to more than 5,000.

Ministry of Defence workers are still at the Milton Park business district removing the shells.

A spokesman for Milton Park said the shells were dead and presented no risk to anyone working on the site or removing them.

“They weren’t used here but were dumped here,” the spokesman said.

“The land was sold by the Ministry of Defence back in 1971, before then it was used as a supply depot for food and clothing – not ammunition.”

The discovery is not expected to delay construction of the office buildings.

“We’ve had about 50 developments so far on this site, but have never come across something like this,” the spokesman said.

Milton Park is one of the UK’s largest business parks with 135 businesses and 6,500 people working there.