The army was called to Weston this weekend when a family discovered what looked like an unexploded bomb on the beach.

A father and son, who were walking on the beach near St Thomas’ Head in Weston after Christmas, called the coastguard after discovering a suspicious metal object lodged between the rocks.

After rushing to the beach to inspect the object, the coastguard decided to call the police who called in the army bomb squad.

Cordoning off the area and safely removing the object, the bomb squad later decided the object was not an unexploded ordnance.

A spokesman for Weston Coastguard said: “Our protocol in this type of situation is to photograph the object, mark its location and cordon off the area.

“The right call was made as there is a disused Ministry of Defence base in the area, where many types of bomb have been tested over the years.”