THE Olympic Delivery Authority has insisted that its Stratford stadium is safe, amid claims that there could be an unexploded bomb lying beneath it.

According to Government records, a German bomb dropped in a tip on the exact site of the stadium just south of Leyton during the Blitz.

Records of bombings during the war state that a large hole was left in a rubbish shoot at the refuse site after an air-raid, but despite several searches throughout the 1940s, no bomb was uncovered there.

A report by weapons company BAE Systems for the Government in 2007, which was recently uncovered by a Stratford resident concluded that explosive material must lie beneath the site of the stadium because of how intense air raids in the area were during the war.

It also recommended that a bomb disposal expert should be present while the site was being excavated.

But while the ODA could not confirm whether this had actually happened, a spokesman said that more than 3,000 searches for unexploded bombs had been carried out across the Olympic Park, including the Marshgate Lane stadium.

He added: “A large excavation of soil was carried out to form the stadium bowl and then more than 4,000 concrete columns were driven up to 20 metres deep into the ground to form the stadium foundations.

“During this work, no evidence was found of any unexploded bombs and we are confident the Olympic site is safe.

“Bomb records and old maps are not a reliable indicator of the current situation – pysical investigations on site are far more accurate.”

He added that some shells of weapons used during the war had been found on the site, but the largest was a hand grenade.