As they piled up the soil they found they had also dug up a large lump of metal – an old artillery shell. Luckily, it did not explode.
Sopa Seahouse, 48, the owner of the dormitory on Soi 2, Moo 3, Rassada, said that initially she ignored the find but eventually decided that it might be best to alert Phuket City Police.
Officers came round to collect the shell, which will be destroyed. They said they believed it to be about 20 years old, but did not explain how it came to be buried in the ground in Phuket Town.
The last time artillery was fired in anger in Phuket was in World War II, about 70 years ago, when Japanese troops occupied the island.