The (Image: Lyme Regis Coastguard)
Bomb disposal experts were left flustered after rushing to a beach in to defuse a weapon – only to find an overturned saucepan submerged in the sand instead. Reports of an unidentified “heavily weathered metal object” at spurred Dorset and the West Bay Coastguard Rescue Team into action on Monday morning. Officials even drafted in Royal Navy bomb disposal experts before heading to the seafront near the village’s Heritage Coast Centre.
After arriving on the shore, however, they were surprised to discover that the mysterious shape was a “very old, straight-sided saucepan or similar metal container”. A 100-metre cordon had already been put in place on the seafront while the bomb disposal team’s inspection got underway.
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Charmouth is home to one of the world’s most famous fossil beaches (Image: Getty)
The half-submerged, upside-down saucepan was only confirmed as such after the the rescue team had taken a series of photos and Royal Navy officials had dug it up.
Lyme Regis Coastguard justified the drastic measures by warning residents that “ordnance is known to wash up on our shores” and urged them to be vigliant in contacting police and the coastguard “if there is any doubt” about the identification of a mystery object.
The UK Government estimates that there are around 500,000 bombs and other ordnances present in Britain’s territorial waters, dating back to World Wars I and II.
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A piece of unexploded ordnance was most recently found in Southsea, Portsmouth, last December, with the Royal Navy unit once again deployed to investigate the item and evacuate the nearby Clarence Pier, Blue Reef Aquarium and the city’s D-Day museum.
Officials were alerted to the huge 1,000-kg weapon after it was uncovered by a digger during a coastal defence construction scheme.
It was safely removed by the experts and a controlled detonation took place out at sea.