German police evacuated a school in the city of Darmstadt on Wednesday, after a “strange object” lying on a shelf among some toys found by one of the children was revealed to be an unexploded World War Two bomb.

“A child had found the stick-type incendiary bomb during a walk in the woods and brought it along to the kindergarten,” said police spokeswoman Andrea Loeb.

Teachers called the police after they found the “strange object” on the shelf and quickly evacuated the building, Loeb said, adding that a bomb disposal team safely removed the bomb.

The danger of unexploded Second World War aerial bombs lurking in the soil still haunts Germany more than seven decades after the war ended in 1945.

More than 2,000 tons of live bombs and munitions are found each year in Germany, even under buildings.

They are defused or detonated in controlled blasts but not before causing disruption, evacuations or sometimes even death.