Opposing coils transient electromagnetic method (OCTEM) adopts small and weak-coupling transmitting-receiving coils configuration, which helps to reduce side effect and improve the detection resolution. With such advantages, it has been widely used for shallow sub-surface target detection. However, when the method is used in urban area, measured data may be distorted by electromagnetic (EM) interference from nearby metal objects. In practical application, it is necessary to perform modelling to provide guidance for measuring data analysis. Two OCTEM application cases in detecting shallow sub-surface karst caves in urban area with metal objects nearby are presented in this paper. Corresponding modelling are carried out to study the interference effect of the nearby metal objects. The first application case is about the EM interference of a vertical steel tower, of which the influence distance reaches up to 9 m by modelling. The second application case is about the EM interference of a thin aluminum fence, of which the influence distance reaches up to 6 m by modelling. Only when the observation is outside the influence zone, the metal influence can be ignored. When the measurement is inside the influence zone, the metal influence cannot be ignored. However, as the nearby metal objects mainly affects the early data, the subsurface target may also be detected in condition that the target response is stronger than the metal interference, or the target response time window is wider than that of the metal interference.