Mortar Bomb event in Powfoot, Dumfries and Galloway area, United Kingdom on Tue 23rd July 2024

An unexploded wartime bomb was detonated by experts at Powfoot beach.

The World War II mortar had been discovered by a man with a metal detector who alerted the emergency services.

And on Friday morning the Explosives Ordnance Disposal team blew up the device amid dramatic scenes near Seaward Caravan Park.

Stewart Bryden, senior coastal operations officer (SCOO), said: “Late on Thursday evening a guy with a metal detector (on the beach) got a hit on his machine and dug around it.“It was a WWII smoke mortar, basically a bomb.

“He phoned it in and we put a cordon in place until this morning when the EOD (Explosives Ordnance Disposal) team arrived from Edinburgh and blew it up.

“It was quite good that it was a red phosphorus one and not a white one because that would have been more dangerous.

“We were not sure if it was a live mortar but you cannot take a chance even though it is more than 70 years ago since it was in use.

“It was buried about two feet in the sand and 150 metres from Queensberry Bay Caravan Park.

“The chap who originally found it turned up again this morning to see it being blown up, but in all the commotion we didn’t get his

details.

“The main thing is everybody is safe and the bomb has been blown up.

“The metal detector chap who found it must have thought he had found some kind of treasure at first, only to discover a WW II bomb!”

Mr Bryden added: “We had Annan coastguard in attendance at the incident, plus Portling coastguard down Colvend way, Police Scotland were there and, of course, EOD.

“We reckon the bomb came from being dumped.

“After the war, basically, there was a kind of clean up to get rid of the explosives and so boats would take them to Beaufort’s Dyke to dump them overboard into the sea.

“But a lot never made it there and it was a case of a quick dump and return to collect more, so this bomb is almost certainly from one of those runs that has washed up.”

Beaufort’s Dyke is an underwater trench far out to sea between south west Scotland and Northern Ireland and meant to be a safe resting place for the munitions which were not used during WWII.