Thousands face travel chaos after London's Victoria train station is evacuated because a camping gas canister found in nearby street was mistaken for a Second World War bomb

• The 'bomb' was discovered by builders in Peabody Street
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• London Victoria was evacuated and all rail journeys halted
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• Police and firefighters attended the scene and discovered the canister

One of central London's busiest train stations has been evacuated after builders discovered what they thought was an unexploded bomb in a nearby residential street.

However, the device was not a remnant of the bombing campaign endured by the capital during the Second World War, but a discarded gas canister found by workers in Peabody Avenue in Pimlico, a short distance south of the major transport hub.

A British Transport Police spokesman said that no trains were leaving or entering the stations and a 'controlled evacuation' took place. Twitter user Matt Jones on the incident at Victoria Station in London

He added: 'British Transport Police (BTP) officers were called to London Victoria mainline station at 10.36am on Tuesday, 10 June, after the discovery of what was believed to be a suspicious item at a site near the station.

'The device was discovered by maintenance workers at the site on Vauxhall Bridge Road and a police cordon was established around the surrounding area to allow emergency services to carry out an investigation.

'BTP officers attended alongside colleagues from the Metropolitan Police Service and discovered the item in question was a camping gas cylinder.

'Some trains were briefly delayed and cancelled at Victoria while the investigation was carried out, and the incident was resolved at 11.07am.'

A Network Rail spokeswoman said it is not yet clear how many services had been affected and how many passengers were stranded, but said the incident will result in around an hour of disruptions and delays.

She added: 'As the incident was close to the tracks leading into Victoria it was necessary to shut the station and halt trains for a time.'

With more than 73 million passenger entries and exits between April 2010 and March 2011, Victoria is the second-busiest terminus in London after Waterloo.

The London Fire Brigade press office confirmed 10 firefighters were at the scene, which was cordoned off.

All train journeys to and from the station were halted after the bomb was uncovered

They were called at 10:50am and said it’s a police-led incident. The spokesman added that the firefighters left at around 11.20 after the area was made safe.

Experts have said there could be up to 21,000 unexploded bombs in Britain because one in ten dropped by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War never detonated.

The cities with the highest numbers are London, Plymouth, Bristol, Manchester and Birmingham.

Five years ago Landmark Information Group used aerial images taken by the RAF after the war to map likely spots where unexploded bombs might have fallen, although exact locations remain a mystery.

London's East End suffered badly during the Blitz, and work on the Olympic Park at Stratford had to be halted after a 1,000kg bomb was found.

It later emerged there could have been up to 200 unexploded devices there.