Low tide reveals WWII-era bomb on beach near resort town in UK

Bomb disposal experts successfully detonated a live World War II era mortar found on the beach near a United Kingdom resort town after low tide revealed the decades-old explosive.

The device was found on a beach north of Weston-Super-Mare, a popular seaside vacation town in the Bristol Channel, the Royal Navy said Wednesday.

"After excavating around the device we established that the device was intact and possible live," Royal Navy Petty Officer Diver Rob Bishop said in a statement Wednesday.

The team determined that the explosive was an anti-submarine mortar bomb and believe it was used in the area when a nearby weapons research facility was operating.

Fearing the bomb would explode if moved, Bishop and his team waited until the next low tide to carry out the controlled explosion.

Though rare, WWII-era explosives do occasionally crop up in Europe, sometimes needing to be defused or requiring a controlled explosion.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: WWII-era bomb found on UK beach near Weston-Super-Mare in low tide