From Mirror.co.uk
A bomb disposal expert was hailed a hero last night for tackling a huge unexploded Second World War device - after it began ticking.
It could have caused carnage after being found near the 2012 London Olympics site.
But a Royal Engineer averted disaster by returning four times to the one tonne bomb during frantic Army efforts to defuse it.
The German weapon - the biggest to be found for 30 years - was discovered in the River Lee close to the Games site in East London by builders on Monday.
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Army experts spent four days preparing to detonate it - but had a shock when it suddenly started to tick and ooze liquid.
And in an extraordinary act of bravery, one Royal Engineer repeatedly returned to the device, dousing it in a salt water substance until the ticking stopped.
Relieved Metropolitan Police Commander Simon O'Brien: "We've got a hero working for London. We owe this man a great debt of gratitude."
Royal Engineers Major Matt Davies, 33, added: "What could have been a disaster has been averted."
The discovery caused chaos, with tube lines closed and businesses evacuated.
But troops were last night carrying out the final detonation of the bomb, believed to have been dropped as Hitler's Luftwaffe aimed for nearby gasworks.
Explosive Facts
51,509 Brits killed by German bombing in WWII
9,251 pilotless V-1 rockets hit Britain
1million homes hit in London
The blitz Period of bombing from Sept 1940 to May 1941
