A FISHERMAN has made a surprising catch of the day – a huge one ton bomb.

AN image of the bomb was posted on Twitter with the poster asking if anyone knew what is was.

Brian Davey wrote: “A friends just picked this up, any ideas?”

It appears the explosive device was found off the coast of Brixham, near Torbay in Devon.

Most commentators thought it was a parachute mine which were mostly used during World War II.

‘Plans Bloke’ wrote on the social networking site: “Parachute mine. Throw it back!”

One joker, ‘Downsman 3,’ thought it could be an “egg timer?”

Murray Foote jokingly suggested it could be a “big cigar”.

‘Ashley’ also got in on the not-so-serious comments with: “Just hit it with a sledge hammer. If it makes a hollow TWANGGG it's a dummy and it's safe. If it blows up in your face and destroys the ship then it's real and hazardous.”

The 8ft bombs though were no laughing matter during the war.

Both RAF Bomber Command and the Luftwaffe used the naval mines which were dropped by aircraft by parachute.

The bombs were detonated before they hit the target to maximise their destructive effect.

When the bombs were dropped on land targets they had the potential of destroying a whole street with a blast radius up to 100m.

The RAF initially used the bombs during the early part of the war but replaced them with blockbuster bombs as the war progressed.