Navy squad called to defuse bomb at UK beach, only to find it’s upturned old saucepan

Discovery of bomb at Dorset beach turns out to be an old saucepan

At 10am local time on Monday (10 March) in the United Kingdom (UK), a member of the public contacted the National Coastwatch Institution (NCI) after they spotted a suspicious object while walking along the beach.

The object — which was partially buried in the sand near the Heritage Coast Centre at Charmouth, Dorset — appeared to look like a bomb.

Source: Daily Mail

Although photos of the suspected bomb were sent to the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) experts, they could not identify exactly what the object was as it was partially buried in the sand.

When West Bay Coastguard Rescue Team and Dorset Police arrived, a cordon was placed around the mystery device.

A navy bomb disposal team was also alerted to deal with the situation.

Washed-up ordnance not uncommon in UK

After carefully digging out the sand around the object, the bomb squad discovered that the “suspicious object” was actually a very old straight-sided saucepan.

While the incident turned out to be a comical misunderstanding, UK news outlet Daily Mail revealed that there have been frequent discoveries of washed-up ordnance on British beaches.

Source: Solway Firth Partnership, for illustrative purposes only.

Citing official UK government data, the outlet noted that there are approximately 500,000 bombs and other ordnance items within Great Britain’s territorial waters.

A coastguard spokesperson mentioned that the member of the public did the right thing by calling authorities and urged others to do the same if there is any doubt.

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Featured image adapted from Source: Daily Mail and Google Maps, for illustrative purposes only.