Magnet fisher accidentally pulls explosives from local river

A magnet fisher searching a local river sparked an emergency when he found some historic explosives.

Suffolk Police said a road had to be closed at the village of Long Melford after the railway track explosives dating back to the 1960s were found.

In a Facebook post, the force's Sudbury and Haverhill Police team said the magnet fisher was fishing from a bridge looking for objects of interest when he made the discovery.

"The most unusual job of the day played out along the B1064 in #LongMelford earlier this afternoon during which we had to close the road for a short while," the post said.

"A visiting magnet fisherman decided to see what he could pull out of the river using the local bridges.

"In amongst his 'catch' was a knife, some shotgun cartridges, a BB gun and just for good measure, a couple of railway track explosives."

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The explosives – which are thought to be leftovers from the 1960s dismantling of the Sudbury to Bury railway line – sparked a scare and led to the road being closed, police said.

The post added: "It was these latter items that triggered the road closure and as the area still has 'disused railway status' it should have been Network Rail that came out to do the honours but they are on strike.

"In the end, EOD (explosive ordanance disposal) came out and took the little devices away."