A ROYAL Mail sorting office in East Dorset had to be evacuated after a suspected wartime shell was discovered.

A 100m cordon was set up around Verwood sorting office in Bessemer Close and the place evacuated after staff discovered the device among the post at 7.30am yesterday.

Royal Mail bosses called police, who alerted bomb disposal experts.

After closer inspection the package was found to be a deactivated shell. It was destroyed in a controlled explosion.

Later a Verwood resident arrived at the sorting office to say a parcel had been delivered that morning minus its contents.

Consignia spokesman Don Veale said: "It turned out that he was a collector of wartime items and was expecting a shell from someone in America.

"Somehow the shell had become separated from its packaging so when staff found it they didn't know where it had come from and it was only when the gentleman came in to say his package was empty that they realised what had happened.

"However in the meantime it had been blown up by bomb disposal.

"He was disappointed but he understood why it had been necessary to destroy it."

A total of 21 people work in the sorting office but most were out on postal deliveries at the time of the incident. The remaining staff evacuated were allowed to return to work after two hours.

Mr Veale added: "Everyone was relieved that it turned out to be a harmless device after we followed the correct procedures."