A HIGHLY explosive bomb found off the coast of Shoebury was detonated by the army.

Southend Coastguard dealt with the unexploded ordnance near the Barge Pier in Shoebury over the weekend. 

The suspicious object was found by observant Community Safety Officers post inspection of a vessel that was lodged underneath Barge Pier who notified Southend Coastguard.

The coastguard were informed on Friday that the suspect object could be some sort of ordnance and would require closer inspection by the Army EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) team from Colchester.

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With the tide now covering up the ordnance, pagers were set to sound the following day to time it when the suspect ordnance would be exposed.

On Saturday, whilst the coastguard awaited the Army EOD to attend, they requested help to police a wide cordon which needed to be put in place with support from Southend Community Safety Officers, Southend Street Rangers and Police Community Support Officers, freeing up Southend Coastguard Rescue Officers to prepare the scene within the cordon and coordinate the incident across all partner services and accompany Army EOD team to the location of the suspect device.

A spokesman for the coastguard said: "The army were able to then take x-rays of the device and after analysing the results confirmed it to be an unexploded ‘High Explosive Bomb’ probably originating from mid 1940s-1960s.

"Southend Coastguard led a number of multi agency briefings on scene and, upon direction from the Army, it was decided that the high explosive bomb would be detonated on the sand/mud flats just little further out.

"Once Southend Coastguard and the Army were comfortable the cordon was secure, notices were sent to Dover Coastguard, Southend Borough Council and Essex Police that a controlled explosion would be taking place.

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"The Army EOD then prepared the ordnance to curtail the upward explosion and reduce shrapnel and then the high explosive bomb was then detonated.

"Once the Army had checked that the detonation had been successful, the cordon was lifted and all services were then stood down from scene to return to operational duties.

"We would like to thank all our partner agencies listed above for their support these past two days, thanks again to our colleagues at the Army EOD team and the general public for their patience and cooperation whilst we enforced the safety cordon."

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All pictures: Southend Coastguard