Bomb scare on Cornwall beach as Navy evacuates beachgoers

Royal Navy confirmed the object was not explosive

(Widemouth Task Force)

A beach in Cornwall was evacuated and sealed off after a crusty metal cylinder which had washed ashore was mistaken for an unexploded bomb.

Police scrambled to set up a 300-metre cordon at Widemouth Beach, near Bude, after beachgoers stumbled across the unidentified metal object on Sunday morning.

A bomb disposal squad from the Navy was dispatched over fears the object could have been an unexploded World War Two bomb.

A spokesperson for the Navy later confirmed that the object was a harmless metal cylinder and not an explosive.

They told Cornwall Live: “Naval teams attended the scene, assessed what it was and found it was a non ordnance. The object was not explosive.

“It was a metal cylinder which has been rolling around in the sea. As it rolled around, it had built a sort of crust on it.

“When the teams cleared it away, they found it was just a metal cylinder. It wasn’t a bomb. It wasn’t an ordnance at all.

“The team is closing the task down and will be returning back to base in Devonport. They have done their assessment, notified police, declared it a non ordnance and will be returning to base.”

It came after a military convoy transported a Second World War bomb through the streets of Plymouth with hundreds of homes evacuated for the risky operation

.A major incident was declared after the bomb was found buried in a back garden in St Michael Avenue by a man helping to build an extension at his daughter’s home.

Soldiers moved the unexploded device through the city to take where it was detonated at sea on February 23.