Sex aid causes bomb scare

A sex aid has caused a bomb scare at a South African rubbish dump.

A group of women searching for items for recycling heard a ticking sound coming from a rubbish bag.

Thinking it could be a bomb, they informed the manager of the Hermanus dump in Cape Town, Adolf Hansen.

"I thought I would just tear the bag open a bit, and then there I saw what it was - a vibrator, the batteries still working," he told the newspaper.

Mr Hansen said he told the women recyclers there was no danger of an explosion, and attempted to explain what the item was to the mystified group.

He recognised what it was immediately, he said, because he had seen vibrators "more than once" before. This one, he said, was "middle-sized".