Mine discovery leads to closure of Burry Port harbour’s west beach

Executive board member for leisure Cllr Meryl Gravell said: “I would like to reassure the public that we have taken the appropriate action, we apologise for any inconvenience whilst the beach is temporarily closed”.

“I even made the joke that it was a big bomb at the time but did not think anything of it”. I saw pictures of it later I thought it couldn’t be the same one they were playing with.

A family narrowly avoided disaster after posing for photographs on the Welsh coast next to an unexploded World War Two mine they thought was a buoy.

Gareth Gravell, 34, allowed his children Ellis, four, and Erin, six, to climb over the barnacle-covered 3ft wide metal ball on the sands.

Kelly said the incident would not put the family off going to the area again but they would be more cautious. “My son was touching it and was knocking on it a little bit, and that was it really”.

He told the South Wales Evening Post that he had no idea the object his children had discovered was actually an explosive device. Local officials said that the object originated from the United States.

A MILITARY mine has been washed up at Burry Port Harbour leading to the temporary closure of the West Beach.

“The realization that it was a bomb – it was completely shocking for us”, she said.

“It’s only afterwards when the reality has set in that we were actually very lucky”.

Following the incident the fortunate dad said he was more concerned about the barnacles on the rusty shell and it never once occurred to him that his children were in danger. “Of course as the barnacles started dropping off, that’s when we could see writings exposed”.

The 34-year-old wrote: “So the buoy my kids were jumping on all weekend turns out to be a WWII bomb”.

PHOTO: Local press has reported that the object dates back to World War II, but this statement couldn’t be confirmed by ABC News. “Obviously we evacuated the beach straightaway”.

The Gravell family went to watch the explosion.