Bomb scare after prawn fishermen land wrong sort of shell

Fishing for prawns off Peterhead, skipper David Alexander thought his latest catch was nothing more than a rusted old gas canister. So he kept it on board for a week.

But when he and his crew landed the unusual catch, it sparked a major incident, which sealed off Europe's busiest white-fish harbour for six hours amid a bomb scare.

The 48in-long, 12in-wide, torpedo-shaped object was spotted on the quayside and reported to the authorities, leading to the port being cordoned off by police, while Royal Navy bomb disposal experts were called in.

The object, believed to be a 70-year-old shell from an anti-submarine weapon from the Second World War, was later blown up in a safe area.

Mr Alexander, 59, said: "It never entered my head it could be dangerous. I saw it in my net and just strapped it down on the hull of the boat and kept fishing.

"There was no way I was going to be coming home early.

"But when I put it on the harbour, someone reported it and all hell broke loose. There was a fair bit of drama."

The navy was unable to identify the item last night, due to the severe rust covering it. However, it is thought to come from a Mark 10 anti-submarine mortar-artillery pieces deployed on ships for the purpose of sinking submarines by a direct hit with a small explosive charge.

Mr Alexander, who has been a skipper for 33 years, was at the helm of the Opportunus IV in place of regular skipper James Buchan.

Last week, the boat, which has a seven-strong crew, was 70 miles north-east of Peterhead when one of its nets dredged up the 4ft-long piece of ordnance.

The skipper said: "It's all rusted over, so it's probably been lying there for some time, probably since the Second World War. There's something that looks a bit like a propeller, but it's all mashed up and in a right state."

Oblivious to the danger, he kept fishing for another seven days. He sailed into Peterhead harbour at 2:30am yesterday and planned to throw it in a bag of rubbish, along with the other waste found during the trip.

However, it was spotted and reported to the authorities. Police set up a 200m exclusion zone and evacuated all fishermen from the scene while the Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal team were called.

Mr Alexander added: "I've never experienced anything like this before in all my years at sea. I got a bit of a shock when I was told the bomb was live."

The bomb squad arrived at Peterhead Harbour at 12:30pm. Two blue ropes were used to pick up the device and place it in an inflatable boat, which then went out to sea.

The boat's usual skipper, Mr Buchan, said: "They had it on the boat since the 23rd and didn't think there was any problem with it. It's probably been picked up a few times by other boats and just chucked back out to sea. But we are in a scheme where we take waste ashore - that's why we kept it."Fisherman Benny Acle, 40, who was one of seven crew members on board, said: "We caught it in the net. It looked like a log, so we hauled it in slowly.

"When we put it on the deck, he said, 'No - it's a torpedo'. We slowly moved away from the net and went to a safe place. Everyone was scared at first, but it didn't explode."

Mr Acle, a father of four, added: "We tied it up so it wouldn't bang about, and we went back to normal."

Grampian Police said they were alerted about 8:30am when the discovery was reported.

About 130 local fishing vessels are based at Peterhead, with a further 200 situated at the port part-time.