Controlled explosion on Murlough beach

AN army bomb disposal team carried out a controlled explosion on a WW2 mortar which was found yesterday on Murlough beach, near Dundrum.

The two inch mortar was found by a walker around 5pm on Thursday evening about a mile on the Newcastle side of Murlough House. It is believed it had been washed ashore in recent storms and is part of a huge cache of munitions which was dumped in a deep sea trench in the Irish Sea after the Second World War.

The bomb disposal team could not blow up the device after dark so the PSNI mounted a guard at the scene throughout the night until the army experts returned at 6.30am.

Members of Newcastle Coastguard team secured the beach until the bomb disposal team detonated the controlled explosion just after 7.15am.

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