Cold War nuclear warning flares set off

Cold War flares that would have warned of immediate radioactive fallout have been set off on Guernsey's northern coast.

A police bomb disposal team has detonated more than 30 of the flares - each of which carries three charges.

Phil Martin, deputy civil protection officer for the States of Guernsey, said: "There were something like 1,500 monitoring posts built [across the British Isles] in the 50s and 60s and virtually every one of those posts would have had a device to warn the general public."

Mr Martin said there were better systems now for warning the public in the event of a nuclear emergency.

He said the island seems to have been missed when the flares - some dating back to the early 1960s - were collected.

A dummy flare - showing how one is constructed - and the outer casing of one of the Mk 1 flares are being donated to the Imperial War Museum, while other parts are being donated to museums set up in former monitoring posts.