Experts to be asked to look for bombs

Five pieces of ordnance have been recovered from the tide line in a month, ranging from a corroded artillery shell and rifle grenades to what could have been part of a wartime contact mine with a detonator still attached.

On Tuesday the Ministry of Defence's Hydrographic Office revealed that there are a number of wartime wrecks on the seabed off Saltburn and that they may have carried ammunition.

Army and Royal Navy bomb disposal teams have been repeatedly called out in the last few weeks to finds made at Redcar, Saltburn and Skinningrove.

Wrecks Officer Nelson McEachan of the Hydrographic Office said: "Several of these vessels were sunk during wartime and thus it is likely that they were armed with various deck guns and carried an amount of ammunition. Some, however, have no known identity.

"Vessel details are gleaned from standard reference books, however they cannot be considered to be definitive as we are concerned with accurately charting the wrecks, not with their precise identities or cargo details.''

Coun David Walsh, leader of Redcar and Cleveland Council, said: "They have identified nine wrecks lying within five miles of Saltburn Pier and of those wrecks at least four - and possibly more - were sunk in the two world wars.

"The Hydrographics Office can confirm that there are 'mystery wrecks' whose origins are unknown. They have only identified cargoes on five vessels - and one of those was a ship that sank in the last decade.''

Coun Walsh is now asking Ashok Kumar, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, 'to contact the MoD in London to see if they can arrange a more detailed survey.'

He also wants anyone with recollections of munitions dumping off the Teesside coast after the Second World War to contact him at the town hall.

No areas are chartered in the vicinity of Saltburn but Mr McEachen says the department would be most interested in any historical information on dumping