ON Thursday, January 11, police from Looe were called to a report of a 'device' being brought in by a local fishing vessel.

Police later confirmed a WWII underwater mine had been caught in the nets of a local fishing vessel which was moored on the Quay in East Looe.

A spokesperson from Devon and Cornwall Police said: "Due to the size of the item, our colleagues from the Coastguard and the Looe Harbour Commissioners Office assisted them in establishing cordons to keep the public safe and were aided further by local businesses.

"They were joined at the scene by the Royal Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team who confirmed this to be a suspected underwater mine from the WWII era, with the potential that it could hold between 500kg to 1,000kg of high explosive.

"The decision was made that the vessel would sail to an exclusion zone off the coast of Plymouth where the device would be detonated safely underwater the next day.”