Bomb near London studio safely removed

A Second World War bomb has been safely removed from a site in north London.

The studio where Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) is filmed was evacuated following the discovery, along with around 300 homes, as the Army tried to defuse the device near Wembley Stadium.

The 110lb (50kg) bomb, dropped during Nazi air raids in the early 1940s, was unearthed by builders working near the stadium yesterday afternoon.

The Army warned of a “genuine risk to life” as homes and businesses, including Fountain Studios, were evacuated.

The BGT spokesman said: “We were just about to start our rehearsal and were trying to build the set when the building was evacuated.

“It has not been great, but it is not detrimental at this stage.”

Wembley Stadium tweeted that this weekend’s Football League play-offs would go ahead as planned.

Police were first called to the building site in Empire Way, Wembley, shortly before 3pm yesterday, following reports of an unexploded device.

A UK Army spokesman confirmed it was live munition in a “potentially dangerous condition”, warning that even a controlled explosion could cause “significant damage to property” and “a genuine risk to life”.

Royal Logistic Corps disposal teams from nearby Northolt and Ashchurch in Gloucestershire worked on excavating the Luftwaffe Sprengbombe-Cylindrisch general purpose bomb and Royal Engineers built a blast wall around the site in order to limit an accidental explosion.