Burnham-On-Sea Coastguards were called out to place a safety cordon around a suspected World War Two device found on a beach near Weston on Saturday afternoon (January 28th).
Believed to be a Spigot mortar, it was spotted on the beach at Sand Bay after being exposed at low tide.
The discovery resulted in a 1,500m exclusion zone being put in place by Coastguards. Residents were also advised to stay in doors.
A controlled blast was successfuly carried out by the Royal Navy’s Bomb Disposal Unit on Sunday afternoon.
A Burnham Coastguard spokesman said: “Our team was paged to back up Weston and Clevedon Teams to set a safe cordon due to exposed ordnance.”
“An old torpedo had been exposed at low tide. It was reported to the EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) Team who along with the two Coastguard Teams from Weston and Clevedon had been on scene for a number of hours.”
“EOD were working towards blowing the ordnance and the Coastguard Teams were clearing the headlands of walkers and fishermen.”
“With such a large amount ground to cover and time constraints due to tide we were paged to help secure a 1500m safety cordon.”
“We quickly arrived on scene and cleared from the Sand Bay car park up to trigg point and to the end of any persons in the area.”
“Airspace was cleared and traffic diverted, and local residents were warned of the impending bang to keep windows open to avoid shattering.”
But due to the tide times, the controlled blast was delayed until Sunday instead.
