'Suspect device' found on beach was speaker

A safety cordon was put in place until bomb disposal officers were able to identify the mysterious object

A bomb disposal team was scrambled to a "suspicious item" on a beach - only to discover it was part of a speaker system.

Whitehaven and Maryport Coastguard teams, together with Cumbria police, were called to Maryport North Shore on Thursday.

When they could not identify the item, they set up a cordon around it and called in Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) specialists from Catterick, North Yorkshire.

An HM Coastguard spokesman added that the item was removed from the beach and identified as harmless.

He said the person who found and reported the item had done the right thing by alerting the emergency services.

He said: "From time to time, around the shoreline of the UK and here in Cumbria, we do have old military ordnance and time-expired pyrotechnics wash up or become uncovered in shifting sands on our beaches."

The item was identified as being part of a speaker