Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour and his wife were forced to flee their home after an unexploded World War II incendiary device was unearthed nearby.

Their six-storey mansion in East Sussex is midway through extensive renovations, during which builders discovered a 150cm pipe-shaped device which caused alarm.

The area was evacuated and a Navy bomb disposal team were called in. They identified the German weapon and removed it safely. No one was injured.

Gilmour’s wife Polly said via Twitter: “They’ve found a bomb under our building site – we think it’s a bit of old pip but the Ministry of Defence are on their way.”

Later she added: “They’ve taken away our bomb. Incendiary – but missing the bit that makes it go bang.”

Last month more than 30 incendiary bombs were found by a metal-detectorist in a cave in East Yorkshire. In January the medal ceremony at the Winter Youth Olympics in Austria was disrupted after a British WWII bomb was discovered nearby.