These were the scenes on Burnham-On-Sea beach on Thursday afternoon (September 3rd) when a wartime bombshell was detonated by the army’s bomb disposal team.
Burnham police officers were called to a property in Berrow Road at 1pm after home owner Glynes Smith reported finding a collection of bullets and a wartime anti-aircraft shell in an outbuilding at the rear of her home.
Speaking to Burnham-On-Sea.com, she said: “My husband and I only moved here two weeks ago and were amazed to find a number of old bullets and a wartime shell.”
“I spoke to my daughter about it and she said they could be dangerous, so we decided to contact the police.”
“They came around very quickly and called in the army bomb disposal team to investigate.”
“The army team said we’d done the correct thing in reporting the find because the bomb was still live! They safely removed it and took it to the beach where it was detonated.”
A cordon was set-up around the beach, south of the jetty, by Burnham police and the wartime shell was exploded by the Royal Logistics Corp at 4pm.
Eyewitnesses on the seafront told Burnham-On-Sea.com they heard a “loud bang” and a large plume of mud and sand shot into the air – as captured in our video.
The beach was re-opened to the public a short time later.
Glynes added: “We’re incredibly relieved that it’s all been removed, particularly after hearing that the shell was still live. It could have caused a great deal of damage.”
She added that the previous occupants of the house, who had lived there for over two years, had ignored the bullets and shell, thinking they were harmless.
Ironically, the incident came on the very day that Britain commemorated the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II when many older Burnham residents were remembering a time when bombs began falling during conflict.
Police on the seafront during Thursday afternoon’s incident
The beach was sealed off while the army team were on the jetty
The army team were happy with another successful detonation
Police and the army team at the scene of Thursday’s incident
