A woman has described her experience after stumbling on an 'explosive device' while walking on a North East beach.

Sharon Cawthorn, who works as a Lifestyle and Feng Shui Consultant at Feng Shui 2 Energize, was walking along Marske beach at around midday yesterday afternoon.

The tide was coming in quickly and she was eager not to get stranded while walking on a nearby sand bank.

However, she suddenly stumbled upon a plate-shaped metal disk sticking out of the sand.

Ms Cawthorn said she soon realised what the item could have been as the North East having a history of washing up old explosive devices.

She said: “I thought well hang on, is this potentially a land-mine here. They’re also doing dredging on the River Tees so I thought it’s possible that something has been washed up.”

Read more: Marske bomb scare latest: Tide prevents removal of device

Although she didn’t have her phone on her, Ms Cawthron flagged down a nearby dog-walker and asked her to call the police.

While they waited they took pictures of the device in order to show the force worried that it would wash away with the incoming tide.

Ms Cawthorn added: “This lady rang it into the police, and they were there within 10 minutes, they were fantastic.

“But by this point, the tide had come in and so I was explaining to them where I had last seen the device.”

Cleveland Police soon announced restricted access to the beach as they dealt with the incident yesterday afternoon.

Ms Cawthorn added: “They were great and this lady emailed over the photographs to the police and they sent it over to Catterick Garrison and the police said that the army lads and girls at Catterick said it was potentially an old landmine.”

The device has yet to be recovered as police today revealed that it had been washed away by the sea.

Officers continue to monitor the area in the meantime for any more sightings of the suspected explosive.

Ms Cawthorn added: “I did think to myself, it might something that’s dropped off from a ship, it might not necessarily like an old land mine, it could be anything.

“The thing is you start to think what if it isn’t, what if it is an old land-mine and what if a child gets hold of it or plays about or something like that.

To get more stories from Teesside direct to your email basket go here

“I did worry that I was wasting police time, but they told me they’d rather deal with hundred false alarms than going out and picking up body parts.”

She concluded: “The thought of something happening to someone, it was just the right thing to do, I didn’t want to leave it for someone else to find.

“To me my priority was getting someone down there and make the area safe and make sure it wasn’t anything nasty.”

Read next: 

If you want to read more great stories, why not subscribe to your Northern Echo for as little as £1.25 a week. Click here