A fisherman has dug up a Second World War bomb off the Essex coast - for the second time this week.

Trevor Mole's boat, the Nicola Anne, which sails out of West Mersea, trawled up another device in the early hours of this morning (Friday), having already picked one up earlier in the week.

Bomb disposal experts have again been called in and were due to attempt to blow up the bomb in a controlled explosion today.

A spokesman for Walton coastguard said the boat and the bomb would be brought back to the St Peters Flat area, off Bradwell.

He added: "We'll go out on the coastguard launch, the John Douglas, and so will the Essex marine police. We don't think it's a big thing, it could be just a charge case, but we don't take any chances."

The spokesman added one explanation why the bombs had come up was when fishermen go to catch sea bass they have to trawl particularly deep.

The latest device was "caught" at Longsand Head, about 15 miles off the Harwich coast.

Earlier this week the same boat brought up a 2,000lb German parachute mine. It also underwent a controlled explosion which sent water flying up to 200ft into the air.

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