Wartime mine trawled up by fishing boat off Hartlepool

The metre-long mine was trawled up five miles off the coast of Hartlepool

A wartime mine has been made secure after being trawled up by a fishing boat five miles off the Hartlepool coast, the RNLI has said.

The metre-long device was caught by a boat with two people aboard on Monday with the RNLI called at 22:40 GMT.

The Royal Navy's bomb disposal team travelled from Scotland but were unable to launch due to the low tide.

Hartlepool's all-weather lifeboat could launch, however, and took the ordnance experts out to sea.

The RNLI was called at about 22:40 on Monday

Hartlepool RNLI deputy launch authority Steve Pounder said the ordnance was "secured" and left on the seabed to be "dealt with in daylight".

The lifeboat and fishing boat were then able to "return to Hartlepool safely", he added.

The operation took two hours to complete

The lifeboat was launched at about 23:10 and returned to the Ferry Road boathouse two hours later.

Hartlepool RNLI coxswain Robbie Maiden said: "Some good teamwork from my crew transferring the bomb disposal teams equipment to and from the all weather boat and assisting the Royal Navy at sea helped bring the incident to a satisfactory end."

The Royal Navy has been approached for comment.