Part of Brean beach was cordoned off by Coastguards for over an hour on Saturday evening (July 9th) after a ‘suspect device’ was found.
Two beach walkers came across the rusty ten-inch cylindrical metal object and brought it to the attention of Brean’s beach warden, who promptly alerted Burnham-On-Sea Coastguards at 8pm.
“The team took several photos of what was originally suspected to be a possible ordnance object and it was confirmed by the Explosive Ordnance Disposal team by telephone that the object was in fact a harmless gas compressor from a fridge,” Burnham Coastguard Station Officer Steve Bird told Burnham-On-Sea.com.
He praised the two men who found the object (pictured) for “doing the right thing in reporting it as soon as they had any suspicions. It could have turned out to be wartime ordnance.”
Several similar scares have led to beaches in the Burnham area being sealed off in recent years and in 2008 huge 700kg German sea mine was found on Stert Island opposite Burnham-On-Sea, which was detonated by the Navy’s bomb squad, as we reported here.
Pictured: Top, the scenes on Brean beach on Saturday evening and, above, Worcester holidaymakers James Watts and Ash Bates who found the device, which is pictured below
