YOUNGSTERS on a trip to the seaside made a grisly discovery among the seaweed - a human skull sticking out of the mud.

Justin Robinson, seven, and brother Dylan, five, of Kelham Hall Drive, Wheatley, were with their friend William Doe, seven, when they made the gruesome find near Havant, Hants. It is believed the skull may be from a Napoleonic prisoner-of-war burial site.

Justin said: "We had been walking through a graveyard just before, so we were a little bit frightened when we first saw the skull.

"It looked very dirty in the mud. I had only ever seen a skull before in a museum. But we didn't touch it until the police came."

His dad, also Justin, said: "The whole thing was very exciting for them - a real adventure. They have seen skeletons in museums so they are not squeamish. They are boys as well.

"There was nothing spectacularly unpleasant about it because it was not recent."

The boys' find has been passed to the coroner's officer who is likely to send it off for tests.

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