In photos: Bomb scare closes part of Berrow beach to holidaymakers

Published: August 7, 2009
In photos: Bomb scare closes part of Berrow beach to holidaymakers

Part of Berrow beach was sealed off on Friday (August 7th) when a Royal Navy bomb disposal team and Burnham-On-Sea Coastguards investigated the discovery of a suspicious object in the sand.

Several hundred metres of the beach north of the car park was cordoned off at 4pm after a metal detector enthusiast uncovered a shell-shaped, metallic object.

A nearby beach warden alerted Burnham-On-Sea Coastguards, who rushed to the scene and were followed by a Royal Navy Explosives Ordnance Disposal team from Plymouth.

Burnham Coastguard Dave Welland told Burnham-On-Sea.com: "We carefully marked the position of the object, and a 100 metre cordon was put in place around it to keep the public at a safe distance."

The bomb disposal team arrived at around 5.30pm and, after inspecting the object, established that the object was not explosive or harmful.

The team's Petty Officer, Eddie Waring, (pictured at the top of this page) told Burnham-On-Sea.com: "The object is probably part of a car filter system, but I can see why its shape and size would raise suspicion."

"The beach warden and Coastguards did the right thing in calling us to investigate."

The beach was fully re-opened to the public a short time later, with the cordon being lifted after 90 minutes of restricted access.

It's not the first bomb scare on beaches in the Burnham-On-Sea area. A huge wartime bomb was exploded on the mudflats near Stert Island last year after being discovered by a fisherman. And an empty wartime bombshell was found in the sand dunes last September, causing part of Berrow beach to be shut for several hours.