A bomb disposal team rushed to the scene of a “suspicious item” thought to be a weapon – only to find out it was part of a loudspeaker.
Coastguard teams from Whitehaven and Maryport were joined by Cumbria Police at the scene of the discovery on the Maryport shoreline on Thursday.
An investigation was launched into the circular object and a safety cordon put up around it, before an army bomb disposal team was called in.
The small round object turned out to be a loudspeaker buried in the sand (Whitehaven Coastguard Rescue Team/Facebook)
The Explosive Ordnance Disposal team arrived before the item was found to be part of a speaker.
The Whitehaven Coastguard team said in a post on Facebook that old military equipment had previously been uncovered on beaches in the area due to shifting sand.
“From time to time, around the shoreline of the UK and here in Cumbria, we do have old military ordnance and time expired pyrotechnics wash up or become uncovered in shifting sands on our beaches,” a spokesperson said.
“Whilst on this occasion it wasn’t explosive, the first informant who reported this done exactly the right thing and helped ensure public safety.”
One Facebook commenter had guessed that it was an “anti-tank mine” (Whitehaven Coastguard Rescue Team/Facebook)
Responding to a comment which guessed the object was a “small anti-tank mine”, Whitehaven Coastguard said it was its “initial thoughts too” before it was identified as a speaker.
In August, a beach on England’s south coast was evacuated after a suspected unexploded bomb was discovered in Beer, a seaside village in east Devon.
The suspicious object was swept back out to sea before the bomb squad were able to assess it, according to the coastguard.
