Coastguard officers and a bomb disposal team were called to East Beach yesterday after reports of suspected ordnance.
HM Coastguard Southend were tasked at 1.15pm yesterday (September 4) to reports of suspected ordnance below the high water mark on the MOD's part of East Beach.
Once on scene the coastguard sent two officers down onto the MOD beach to inspect the item, take measurements and location coordinates for sending to the HM Coastguard Operations Centre (MRCC) and onward to the Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team for review.
Upon examination of the pictures and, as the suspect item appeared to have the same measurements as a 105mm army shell casing, the Colchester Army EOD team decided to come down to further inspect the item.
Therefore a 100m cordon was put in place to ensure the safety of the public.
Essex Police and Southend Council were informed and community support officers were sent down to help man the cordon.
Once the Army EOD were on scene, the item was inspected which required digging deep around the item to confirm it was not a 105mm shell and in this instance it was not confirmed ordnance but a legacy metal support structure which went very deep below the beach and could not be dug out.
Coastguard Officers therefore made the item safe and were stood down after seven hours out attending this and a previous incident.
An Essex Police spokesman said: "We would like to thank members of the public for their cooperation whilst the cordon was in place.
"Whilst we are also thankful for being informed of the suspect item, we would like to remind members of the public that this part of the MOD beach is prohibited to the public for the very reason old ordnance can and does get washed up in this area.
"Whilst we were manning the cordon we observed a father take 2 young children onto the MOD beach , just outside the cordon, whilst we were managing a live incident just over 100m away with suspected ordnance.
"So words of advice were given to the family."
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