A deliveryman in North Carolina spotted the toy on the side of the road - when he picked it up, an explosive device fell out.7:32am UK,

Saturday 23 November 2013 A newspaper deliveryman picked up a teddy bear that turned out to have a bomb inside

A teddy bear contained a dangerous surprise

A US newspaper deliveryman picked up a teddy bear on a rural road, only to have authorities tell him later a bomb had been stuffed inside.

Anthony Cannon he spotted the booby-trapped toy before dawn on Thursday along his route near Lattimore, a tiny town in North Carolina.

Later, he circled back to pick it up.

"I thought it was real unusual to be sitting in the middle of the road," Mr Cannon, 42, said. "It was pitch-black out there. When I picked the

bear up some sort of container fell out."

Not realising he was holding an improvised explosive device (IED), Mr Cannon left the bear and put the cylindrical item in his car. He drove

to his cousin's home, where he examined what he had found more closely in the light.

He says it was a small, liquid-filled bottle covered with tape with some wires coming out of it. Suspecting what he was holding might be

dangerous, Mr Cannon set the device down on the porch and called 911.

Among those who responded was a bomb squad from the larger nearby city of Gastonia.

"Within about two minutes of walking up, they said it was an IED and cleared us out of the house," Mr Cannon said.

Cleveland County Sheriff Alan Norman said Mr Cannon was very lucky. Though he said he couldn't speak to the construction of the device or

how it could be set off, the sheriff said it was capable of causing serious damage.

The bomb was deactivated and sent to a lab. Federal investigators are inspecting the device, looking for clues as to who made it.

Even though he could have been seriously injured or killed, Mr Cannon said he is happy he picked the bear up out of the road.

"If a kid had walked down the road and seen that bear, I'm pretty sure they would have picked it up," he said.

Thank God

GLORY BE TO GOD ALMIGHTY.