WAR shells found on beach near Heysham Head.
Six unexploded World War Two bombs were destroyed by Royal Navy disposal experts off Heysham Head on Tuesday lunchtime - and now the Coastguard has warned there could be more.
Police cordoned off the beach near Smithy Lane at Heysham and warned nearby residents to keep away from their windows as the four-strong team detonated the live shells in a controlled explosion at around 12.20pm.
The mortars, believed to have been fired off Heysham Barrows by the Home Guard during the Second World War, were discovered by a retired sea captain who was out walking on the beach at the weekend.
Charlie Overett, a keen fisherman and former member of Morecambe Lifeboat crew, alerted the Coastguard when he stumbled across one of the shells about 200 yards off the coast.
"I spotted it while I was out with my friend, Ian Miller and didn't like the look of it," said Charlie.
"The coastguard Alex (Bottomley) is a friend of mine so I asked him to have a look because it looked like a bomb. He confirmed straight away that it was.
"We had a look around and found five more."
A team from the HM Naval Base, Clyde came down to Heysham Head on Tuesday morning to carry out the controlled explosion when the tide was out.
A small crowd gathered to watch from the safety of the nearby cliffs as the squad set up detonators on the beach, retreated to behind rocks around 200 yards away and detonated all six shells simultaneously in a small explosion.
Alex Bottomley, HM Coastguard station officer, said the shells would have laid undetected for decades and only uncovered by the movement of sand.
He also said they were found in the same area where two other live rounds were discovered in June.
Those two three-inch, 10lb shells were discovered by photographer William Hawkins, his partner Susan Pashley and her 14-year-old son James, and were also destroyed by a navy team.
Mr Bottomley said it was believed there are more unexploded shells still lurking in the same area of beach.
The Coastguard has asked the public to be vigilant and to report the findings of any suspicious-looking shells.
