A live German second world war sea mine has been towed out to sea and safely destroyed after washing up on shore in West Sussex.

The device, one of the biggest mines the Nazis ever produced, measured about 1.8m in length and weighed approximately 1,000kg.

It was found off Elmer Beach near a residential area in Bognor Regis on Saturday.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the mine was safely detonated at about 5pm.



Here’s the moment our @RoyalNavy bomb disposal experts detonated a German air-dropped mine off the coast of Sussex. #BOOM 💥 pic.twitter.com/B1UkLv23gr — HMNB Portsmouth (@HMNBPortsmouth) May 20, 2018

Earlier, residents were alerted as a precautionary measure and ships were warned to steer clear of the mine by the coastguard broadcasting to vessels in the area.

A mile-wide maritime and air exclusion zone was also enforced.

Sussex police confirmed that bomb disposal experts were called in after the mine was found 500 yards from a local man’s front door.

They inspected the device and work took place to make it safe while the tides allowed access, officers said.

Paul Austin, who found the bomb and alerted the emergency services, said that upon close inspection it was “quite clearly a weapon”.

.@RoyalNavy bomb disposal experts SDU2 have removed a 6ft long 1000kg WW2 air dropped bomb from Elmer Sands Beach. It will be towed out to sea and safely detonated shortly. Follow us for explosion pics shortly #heroes #blastoff pic.twitter.com/uGtuEVqNQl — HMNB Portsmouth (@HMNBPortsmouth) May 20, 2018

“We were almost standing on it, but then we stepped away,” he told the BBC.

He had been walking along the beach with a friend when he saw the object and spotted it had a fin, or a propellor, and a cone nose.

“I said: ‘Let’s throw stones at it’ as a joke.’ But then I thought, actually, that’s a torpedo or a bomb.

“At first it looked like a big oil drum. I didn’t think it was a bomb,” he said. “If that went up, and it’s full of TNT, it would have taken a lot of people with it.”

No homes had to be evacuated.