Police today sealed off a stretch of Southend seafront today after a trawler dragged up a 9ft-long German World War Two bomb.
Thames Coastguard was called to an unexploded bomb half a mile off shore at 2.30pm yesterday.
Water bomb - Navy divers prepare to tow the bomb which is a few metres under the water Picture: STEVE O'CONNELL
Once identified as a parachute mine weighing more than 2,200 lbs, bomb disposal experts from the Southern Diving Unit sped from Portsmouth with a full police escort.
At about 8pm, a decision was made to return it to the seabed until first light today.
The bomb was being towed to Shoebury for a controlled explosion. A spokesman for the Royal Navy said: "There is a danger, that is why we established the cordon a mile around the bomb and an air restriction a mile overhead."
Published Thursday, August 7, 2003
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