Norwood residents got a good scare Tuesday morning, when emergency vehicles arrived at a construction site at 3524 Hull Ave. to remove what they thought might be a missile.

Found in a dumpster by workers at the building, it turned out to be an inert artillery shell, the NYPD said.

Residents who piled into the streets following the arrival of fire and emergency truck and a helicopter hovering over the site (just north of East Gun Hill Road) say that a member of the bomb squad simply carried the weapon in his bare arms to a truck that then took off with it. That sent all the other emergency trucks away and the workers back to work.

One worker who said he was part of a crew installing elevators at the site, said they measured the shell — a narrow, green projectile — at 39 inches. They said it had to have been left there overnight since they had been working with the dumpster the previous day. Several workers and residents got photos of the weapon on their cell phones.

Marlene Lopez, who runs K & M Daycare in her apartment across the street, said that emergency workers told her to close up for the day, after which she called parents and informed them of the situation.