Bomb squad teams were called in off the North East coast late on Monday (February 6) night after a fishing boat trawled a wartime mine.
Royal Navy bomb disposal experts were called out to meet a boat five miles off the Hartlepool coast shortly after 10.40pm where two fishermen had discovered the explosive charge.
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A volunteer RNLI lifeboat crew were called in to take the explosives team and their equipment out to the 13-metre fishing boat as the bomb disposal team were unable to launch their own vessel because of low tides.
The bomb disposal team reached the fishing boat shortly after 11.25pm and were transferred to the vessel to inspect the device.
The metre-long explosive charge was secured and left on the seabed to be dealt with in daylight, and the bomb squad returned to shore at 1.10am on Tuesday (February 7).
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Hartlepool RNLI coxswain Robbie Maiden said: “Some good teamwork from my crew transferring the bomb disposal teams equipment to and from the all weather boat and assisting the Royal Navy at sea helped bring the incident to a satisfactory end.”
Steve Pounder, Hartlepool RNLI Deputy Launch Authority, added: "Unfortunately the bomb disposal team who had travelled from Scotland were unable to launch their own boat due to the low tide so we took them to sea to deal with the ordnance which they secured and left on the seabed to be dealt with in the daylight and then allow both our boat with the Navy team back on board and the fishing boat to return to Hartlepool safely."
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