Portsmouth Harbour reopened exclusion now lifted After Device confirmed Safe

Portsmouth port has reopened to traffic following the find of a Wartime mine discovered in Portsmouth Harbour near Southsea this afternoon. Specialists from the Royal Navy Southern Dive Team two were alerted early this evening after the ordnance was dredged up and the major city port was closed to traffic with a 500m exclusion put in place. The closure of just over 3 hours has severely delayed traffic in and out of the port. Royal Navy bomb disposal experts are understood to have detonated the unexploded Second World War device after it was dredged up from the bottom of Portsmouth Harbour. The mine was found in the excavator head of a barge dredging the harbour – part of a raft of infrastructure upgrades taking place in readiness for the arrival of the Royal Navy’s new 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier. The entrance to Portsmouth Harbour was closed as a precaution while the bomb disposal team assessed the swiftest and safest way of making the device safe. Just after 9pm this evening, the find was declared safe.