A dog walker accidentally picked up a World War Two bomb on a UK beach after mistaking it for a bottle - before it exploded in his hands.

Tony Lovell was searching for trinkets along Crimdon Beach in Hartlepool, County Durham when he came across the seemingly unremarkable item near the shore.

But he soon noticed a 'bright orange' liquid swirling around inside the vessel and an unpleasant smell coming off it.

Moments later, the object started emitting black smoke with flames licking the dog lead which was hanging over his shoulders.

Mr Lovell rushed to hospital and left the bottle next to a bin, where the army's bomb disposal unit collected it before later destroying the item in a controlled explosion. 

The dog walker was attended to by the North East Ambulance Service and was found to be uninjured. 

He explained that he was attracted to the item lying on the beach as he thought it was a 'nice looking bottle'.

Mr Lovell said: 'I always like searching the beach for interesting things - bits of old boats, funny stones, pieces of Victorian boots, weird vapes.

'I thought it was some posh modern gin bottle. But the liquid inside was bright orange and smelled awful.'

He admitted that he kept holding on to it despite his son telling him the item was too 'dangerous', a point soon proved correct when it started smoking in his hands.

The dog walker later realised the reaction had been triggered when the substance inside the bottle came into contact with air.

When he returned to his caravan and told his wife Marie - whose dad was a former fire chief - she insisted he call the emergency services.

'The lady on the phone told me to take all my clothes off straight away, put them outside and get in the shower,' he said. 'Then they told me to go to the hospital.'

Emergency crews, including police, paramedics and fire services, attended the scene, while the army's bomb disposal unit was called in.

'They asked what I'd done with the lid, and I said I'd just thrown it on the grass somewhere,' Mr Lovell said.

'Then suddenly there was a patch of grass going up in flames, that was the lid.'

The discovery comes just weeks after around 150 phosphorus-based grenades from World War Two were found on the same stretch of coastline.

It is not yet confirmed whether his find was linked to these previous discoveries but experts believe it likely consisted of a similar material, which can ignite spontaneously when exposed to oxygen.

'It's quite scary that something from a conflict long ago is still having after effects,' Mr Lovell added.

'People need to be careful, it might just look like a bottle, but it could be something much more dangerous.'