Fisherman took unexploded mine home to Shandwick

Mr Innes said he did not realise the mine was dangerous

A village was evacuated after a fisherman netted an unexploded wartime mine and took it home with him.

Prawn fisherman Andrew Innes, 54, said the live part of the mine had been in his garden shed since he pulled it from the Cromarty Firth last Thursday.

Police were alerted after noon on Tuesday, and cordoned off Mr Innes's home in Shandwick.

Twenty nearby homes were evacuated before a Royal Navy bomb disposal team made the device safe.

Mr Innes recovered the unexploded mine from the waters of the Cromarty Firth, which was a major base for the Royal Navy during the two world wars.

The whole area was evacuated and I feel pretty embarrassed about that Andrew Innes Fisherman

The fisherman took the device back to port at Cromarty, dismantled it and then took the live part back home with him.

He said: "I didn't know there was anything dangerous about it at all. I have seen them before and it didn't look dangerous.

"The cables had all disintegrated with the salt water, so I didn't think it was live.

"I have been at this since 1970 and have picked up all sorts of things, including mines. We don't usually take them on board, but it was stuck in the net.

"We didn't know what it was at first because it was covered in oil and we had to clean it."

'Slightly unusual'

He eventually decided to tell the fisheries office in Scrabster about the find.

Mr Innes added: "They contacted the coastguard in Aberdeen who called the police. They sent up bomb disposal experts from the Royal Navy in Edinburgh and took the mine away and exploded it on the beach.

"The whole area was evacuated and I feel pretty embarrassed about that. I'm just glad that it's all over now and everyone can get back home."

Ch Insp Matthew Reiss, Northern Constabulary's area commander, said: "It is suspected to be a wartime ordnance device.

"They are found from time to time, but it is slightly unusual to have something this size within someone's home."

A reception centre was set up at the Memorial Hall in Balintore for those people who were evacuated.