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German second world war sea mine destroyed in West Sussex

Bognor Regis seafront
The bomb washed up on shore near a residential area of Bognor Regis. Photograph: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

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.

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”.

“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.