A bomb disposal team rushed to the scene of a 'suspicious item' believed to be a weapon – only to discover it was part of a speaker.
Coast Guard Teams from Whitehaven and Maryport were joined by Cumbria Police at the scene of the discovery on Maryport's shoreline on Thursday.
An investigation was launched into the round object and a security cordon was placed 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 loudspeaker.
The Whitehaven Coastguard team said in a post on Facebook that old military equipment had previously been discovered on beaches in the area due to drifting sand.
“From time to time around the UK coastline and here in Cumbria we have old military ammunition and expired pyrotechnics washing up or becoming exposed in drifts on our beaches,” a spokesperson said.
“Although it was not explosive on this occasion, the first informant who reported it did exactly the right thing and helped ensure public safety.”
One Facebook commenter guessed it was an “anti-tank mine” (Whitehaven Coastguard Rescue Team/Facebook)
In response to a comment suspecting the object was a “small anti-tank mine”, the Whitehaven Coastguard said this was also “its initial thoughts” before identifying it as the speaker.
In August, a beach on England's south coast was evacuated after a probably unexploded bomb was discovered in Beer, a coastal town in east Devon.
According to the Coast Guard, the suspicious object was swept back into the sea before the bomb squad could assess it.
