Bomb disposal at Pagham Beach

Posting the footage on Facebook, Littlehampton Coastguard said its team was called to reports of an ordnance at the beach and photos were sent to experts, who confirmed the item 'could potentially be a live fused projectile'.

A 100m cordon was put in place with the Selsey coastguard team called in for back-up and police informed while the explosive ordnance disposal team, or EOD arrived.

The post added: "Once EOD from HM Naval Base Portsmouth arrived they assessed the item and decided an on site disposal via detonation was the best course of action. They were tasked to assess another item but this was found to be safe.

"All units stood down once the item had been made safe. We would like to pass our thanks to the local residents for their cooperation and hospitality and to the officers from Arun Police in assisting us with the cordon."

Darren Crisp from Littlehampton Coastguard said: "Ordnance comes in all shapes and sizes, if you find something on the beach that looks suspicious dial 999 and ask for the coastguard."