10:30am Friday 19th March 2010
By Julie Magee
AN MP, who narrowly escaped death in an explosion that killed five friends, has called for minehunters to search Swanage beach for wartime munitions, Just days after a Second World War mine was exploded in Weymouth Bay.
Robert Key, MP for Salisbury, told the Commons how he, aged 10, was among some 20 children who came across an unexploded mine on the beach in 1955.
He was metres away when it exploded –blowing him into the sea and killing five children.
Speaking during a debate on a Bill to ban cluster bombs on Wednesday, he suggested the town could be used as a training ground for Royal Navy minehunters to detect 58 mines left unaccounted for following a clearance operation after the Second World War.
He said: “Now we have the technology, I would like to see minehunters brought in, because now we can detect these things, perhaps in training, to sweep Swanage beach and the coast right around Bournemouth.”
He said papers he’d requested from the Imperial War Museum showed the beach had been cleared three times before being granted a clearance certificate in 1950. The de-mining officer told an inquest into the deaths he thought the mine had probably been washed ashore in a gale.
Mr Key said he had been “horrified” to discover that, out of 117 mines laid, just five were lifted in clearance. There was evidence that a further 54 had existed, but 58 were still unaccounted for.
Swanage county councillor and town deputy mayor Bill Trite said: “It’s news to me that there could be these mines hanging around.”
He said it was not something townsfolk were concerned about: “Holidaymakers are in no greater danger on Swanage beach than any other beach in the UK.”
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