A man has described the heart-stopping moment he saw what appeared to be a “decapitated head” in a skip while walking in a Sutton street.

Peter Massam was walking down Priory Road on June 30 without “a care in the world” when he was met with the shocking discovery.

Fortunately, it wasn’t what he first thought it was.

The insurance broker, from Chatsworth Road, said: “I was just walking down the road, it was 30 degrees [celsius], not a care in the world, and all of a sudden out the corner of my eye I see what I think is a decapitated head sitting in a skip!

“The first thing is you get that surge of adrenaline. It felt like seconds – must have been a split-second – and then I realised, ‘Hang on a minute, that’s not real!’

“You can see the angle that it’s at not attached to the body. So you think, ‘Where is the rest of it?’

“The next thought is, what a strange place to dump it on a Saturday afternoon.”

It’s thought someone was clearing out unwanted items from their home and the dummy was part of the rubbish in the skip.

But Mr Massam, 48, who said his "heart stopped" initially sees the funny side to it after the initial surprise.

He now hopes people are a little more careful when getting rid of dummies and other similar objects.

Mr Massam added: “If you’re going to disregard a decapitated mannequin’s head, please could you do it in an appropriate format? Is it recyclable? I don’t know!”