Bomb which delayed Clipper in Portsmouth is detonated

The device was detonated just after 11am.

The German SC250 bomb was found in the early hours of Wednesday in the excavator head of a barge dredging the harbour entrance.

Portsmouth Harbour was temporarily closed to vessels until around 7.30am, when it was deemed safe to re-open.

Royal Navy divers were called in to deal with the large explosive.

Lieutenant Mike St Pierre was leading the bomb disposal team and said they had worked swiftly to remove the device bomb and safely detonate it.

'As always, the Royal Navy stands ready to respond to these call-outs and keep people safe,' he said.

'Despite being old, these devices can pose a very serious threat.'

This type of Second World War German SC250 bomb weighed 500lbs (227 kilos) and contained 290lbs of high explosives.

It caused severe delays to port traffic, including the Commodore Clipper.

It had to wait outside the harbour, while the device was initially dealt with.

However, once it finally docked at 9am – more than two hours late – it then had to wait for another cargo vessel to come in.

It finally departed Portsmouth at about noon – three hours later than planned, and arrived in Guernsey at about 7pm last night.

A number of wartime explosives have been found in the harbour during the recent dredging work.

On 16 November, passengers were stranded on board the Clipper for five hours when a 500lb German bomb was found and later detonated.

Just last Friday a British-made Armstrong Whitworth munition was uncovered and a controlled explosion had to be carried out.

The dredging work is part of a raft of infrastructure upgrades taking place at the harbour in readiness for the arrival of the Royal Navy's new 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.

Once complete, the main shipping channel into Portsmouth will be made one metre deeper.

New power facilities are also being built, navigational aids installed and jetties upgraded to take the carriers alongside.