Police report that at about 2 pm on Friday, May 31, a worker at the town’s waste transfer station at Ethan Allen Road discovered an unusual and potentially dangerous object in some household waste that had been dumped at the facility.

A 57-millimeter anti-tank artillery shell was the projectile found amid that waste, said police spokesman Lieutenant Aaron Bahamonde. Such ammunition, about 2¼ inches in diameter and about 17 inches long, typically is used by the army in land combat to destroy tanks.

Newtown police called in the state police bomb squad to investigate and determine if the shell posed an explosion hazard.

Bomb squad technicians used an X-ray machine to determine that the shell held no gunpowder, the lieutenant said. Whether the shell was a live round initially was unclear because it still had a primer cap at its base, he said.

Police were positioned on Ethan Allen Road to turn back residents seeking to use the transfer station, which police closed for the balance of the day. The station was slated to reopen at 7 am on Saturday, June 1.

There were no injuries in the incident. Botsford Fire Rescue Company firefighters stood by near the entrance gate to the transfer station during the incident.

Police are investigating the circumstances of the artillery shell being left at the transfer station, Lt Bahamonde said.