KILVE beach was closed to the public when a “suspicious item” was successfully detonated by a Royal Navy bomb disposal team last Thursday after it had been monitored by Watchet Coastguard.

The Watchet team was called to the beach last Wednesday and guarded the object until it was safely covered by the tide.

Photographs of the object were sent to Royal Navy experts at Plymouth, and Watchet coastguards returned to the beach on Thursday until the arrival of a bomb-disposal team.

A Coastguard spokesman said: “We would like to remind anyone finding anything suspicious on the shoreline not to touch it but to ring 999 noting the location and description.

“They should only take photographs using aeroplane mode on a mobile phone and not with a flash camera.”