Royal Navy explosives experts have been clearing wartime shells from a beach in Norfolk.

The divers, from Southern Diving Unit 2, based at Portsmouth, searched the beach at Holme-next-the-Sea in Norfolk as part of an initiative to clean up wartime explosives which have been left over from old military training bases.

In this case the explosives were shells from a World War II artillery range, and such programmes give Navy bomb disposal teams – or explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) experts – useful training at the same time as improving the environment for members of the public.

A number of old shells, both inert practice rounds and live 25lb high-explosive shells, were uncovered and dealt with safely.

Such work, clearing hazardous remnants from old military areas, is a routine part of the EOD teams’ work, although their prime role providing round-the-clock bomb disposal expertise, dealing with incidents such as 500lb bombs caught in fishing nets and the like, is what usually grabs the headlines.