SCORES of holidaymakers were evacuated from Studland during a bomb scare at the beach yesterday.

Middle Beach was closed for nearly five hours from 8.50am following a report from the National Trust of a suspicious metal object, believed to be an unexploded mortar shell.

Police, army and coastguard officers attended the scene and found a device around 15-inches in length and four-inches in diameter situated above the waterline.

A controlled explosion was carried out several hours later. Visitors watched the drama from behind a cordon and the beach was reopened around 2pm.

National Trust spokesman Jon Bish confirmed that Middle Beach was closed early morning after a man with a metal detector turned up the rusty shell, suspected to be a Second World War piece of ordnance.

“The Royal Army Ordnance Corps came down and carried out a controlled explosion and there was a small puff of smoke,” he said.

Holidaymaker Mike Wyatt, who videoed the incident, said: “It was a remote controlled explosion and one little boy, who was about ten years old, was allowed to press the button to detonate the device.”

His partner Jacky Strefford added: “We were all waiting around to see what would happen but in the end it was a bit of a damp squib.

“There was just a muffled explosion and a little bit of smoke!”

June Morrell, who owns a beach hut in the area added: “Everybody came along to watch. It’s been a nice adventure for the kids anyway – it’s something for them to tell their mates when they go back to school.”

It is not unusual for armaments from the Second World War to be washed up on the beach, which was used to practice the D-Day landings.