Great Yarmouth bomb: Explosion heard across the town

At around 5pm today (February 10), a boom echoed across the town as military personnel were dealing with the Second World War device in a controlled operation.

The explosion came on the fourth day of a major incident, which had led to hundreds of homes evacuated, businesses temporarily closed and road closures.

There were no reports of any injuries following the loud blast from Bollard Quay and checks are being made to make sure the area is safe before people can return to their homes.

A screenshot of the explosion from a video shared by Casey Goodrum. (Image: Video shared by Casey Goodrum)

The detonation happened as the army decided to tackle the bomb with a new approach, which consisted of what the police have called a "slow burn" process.

However, a full detonation of this kind still posed a risk.

Following the detonation, police said there will now have to be safety checks carried out around the surrounding areas to ensure it is safe for residents to return home.

This process may take some time.

The Second World War bomb in Great Yarmouth has been detonated. (Image: Screenshot of video shared on Facebook of Luke Stone)

Superintendent Nathan Clark, head of Great Yarmouth police, said earlier attempts of defusing the bomb were halted due to interference with the integrity of the sand blast barrier.

Supt Clark said: "Unfortunately, the amount of water used started to interfere with the integrity of that structure, and we felt we couldn’t continue with this option.

"The military opted for another plan – not the preferred approach - to slow burn the explosive within the device.

"What they didn’t want to do was lose the integrity of the structure, because then you wouldn’t have been able to protect the area if we did have a full blast.

"And that could have meant all the calculations they’d done on the mitigations put in place to protect the surrounding infrastructure might have failed.

"We may not have been able to protect some of our infrastructure.

"The full explosion was planned - in the sense that they always knew a slow burn of the explosive could cause a full charge and a full detonation.

"And I believe that’s what’s occurred.

“The calculations would suggest no infrastructure in the surrounding area would have been affected by the blast. That’s why the mitigation was put into place. 

"Those sand bank defences should have protected the area.

“What we need to do now is a full safety check of the site at an appropriate time and make sure it is absolutely safe."

Military vehicle after bomb detonation. (Image: Denise Bradley)

Supt Clark said he expects there to be a "large crater" at the site, but ground checks would be necessary to assess the damage.

He said: “That is effectively a World War Two bomb that’s just gone off.

"Now, the military put all the protection they could around that bomb with our advice.

“We now need to go and fully assess and let’s hope all that work has paid off.”

Supt Clark said the cordon will remain in place while safety checks are being carried out and people are to avoid the area.

He added: "I imagine once the safety checks have been conducted, we can start asking people to go home.

“But I want to be really clear here. At this moment in time, the cordons need to remain. We need to check that infrastructure over time, and then as soon as we can start to either reduce or remove the cordon completely, we will inform the public."

He said he was unsure how long the safety checks will take, but he imagined it would take some time.

"As soon as we know, we will warn and inform so the public can return to some sort of normality as quickly as possible," he added.

The scene shortly after the bomb went off. (Image: Denise Bradley)

Supt Clark reassured the public of the explosion.

"The loud bang people heard is consistent with this sort of explosion we would have expected with a controlled detonation of this type," he said.

“And I am pleased to say that everyone at this moment in time is safe."

The cordon will remain in place on Southtown Road for the foreseeable future. (Image: Denise Bradley)

Supt Clark said the support of the public has been "fantastic".

He said:"All those people who have been out of their homes for four days - not only within the 200m red zone - but also within the 400m zone.

"They’ve been incredibly patient with us, and I would just like to thank everyone for that."

The bomb was reported on Tuesday after being dredged up as part of the third river crossing project.