EXPLOSIVES experts have detonated a phosphorus flare found by a man catching the rays on Estacio beach in La Manga del Mar Menor (Murcia).
He contacted the Guardia Civil when he saw what looked like a bomb on the sand, but which turned out to be an unfired signal flare.
In its unexploded state, however, it was still potentially dangerous, so divers from the EOD detonation squad were called in.
They removed it safely and took it to the Guardia Civil headquarters in Cartagena to neutralise it.
The Guardia Civil, who are military-trained police, have a bomb-detonation diving team in-house, which works with the Naval Anti-Mine Measures Diving Unit – the UBMCM – as well as the land-based explosives team, TEDAX.
These Armed Forces experts are the only specialists permitted to deal with incendiary devices in Spain.
Usually, they are called out to neutralise Civil War bombs, which occasionally wash up on beaches 80 years after the conflict, but which can still go off if handled and should be left well alone by members of the public.
Photograph by the Spanish Navy anti-mine diving team (UBMCM)
