Well, that’s one trip to the beach this family won’t soon forget. An outing in Wales took a startling turn last week when what seemed like a harmless buoy turned out to be an unexploded World War II mine. Kelly Gravell and her two children stumbled upon the mysterious object while enjoying the sun near Burry Port, Carmarthenshire.
“It looked like a large object on the beach, so we thought we’d have a little look,” Gravell said. “We get things washed up all the time, so we thought it was a buoy. We never thought for one second it was a bomb.” The scene quickly turned into an unwitting photoshoot as Gravell’s children, Erin, 6, and Ellis, 4, started posing with the peculiar find.
After the World War II era bomb was detonated. Photo courtesy of Mercury Press
“We were more fascinated by the barnacles on it,” Gravell recalled. “My son was touching it and was knocking on it a little bit, and that was it really.” Little did they know, their innocent beach playtime was soon to be the talk of the town. Days later, Pembrey Country Park officials made a startling announcement on their Facebook page: the “buoy” discovered on the shore was, in fact, an active military mine.
The news came as a shock to the Gravell family. “The realization that it was a bomb — it was completely shocking for us,” Gravell admitted. “We realize now just how lucky we were.” Gareth, the children’s father, tweeted his surprise and shared the photos online.
So the buoy my kids were jumping on all weekend turns out to be a WWII bomb. Oops.”
Allison Thomas-David, from Carmarthenshire County Council, shed light on the discovery. “It very much looks like a buoy, which we get on the regular, but around it was gooseneck barnacles,” she explained. “Of course, as the barnacles started dropping off, that’s when we could see writings exposed.”
The object’s origins date back to World War II, although specific details remain unconfirmed. Nevertheless, it was clear that the object posed a serious threat. “This was picked up by the coastguard who then notified the bomb squad,” Thomas-David elaborated. “Obviously, we evacuated the beach straightaway. It detonated in a controlled explosion.”
The remains of the exploded bomb. Photo courtesy of Mercury Press
Remarkably, the Gravell family chose to witness the detonation firsthand. Gravell expressed that the experience had made them more vigilant about foreign items washing up on the beach.
“We were close to disaster — it’s shocking,” Gravell said. “We’ll definitely think twice before messing with something like that in the future.”
While the incident may have added an unexpected twist to their beach day, the Gravells emerged unharmed and with a newfound awareness of the potential dangers lurking in the sand. As for future outings, they’ll be approaching beach discoveries with a bit more caution. Watch below for a look at the explosion!
Sources: ABC News | Daily Mail