Rail disruption ends following 'wartime bomb' discovery near Hartlepool

Northern Trains tweeted around 7.30pm on Monday evening: “Disruption caused by a wartime bomb near the railway at Hartlepool has now ended. Services are no longer affected by this problem.”

Train services running through Hartlepool station towards Sunderland and Middlesbrough had earlier been disrupted.

British Transport Police (BTP) dealt with the discovery on railway land just off the A1086 main coast road, near the former Seagull pub, which the Sunderland-Hartlepool-Middlesbrough rail line passes.

A BTP spokesperson had earlier said: “Officers from British Transport Police together with colleagues from Durham Constabulary are investigating reports of a possible World War Two unexploded device found on farm land in the Blackhall Rocks area very close to the Newcastle coastal route railway line.”

Network Rail said the device was found around 60 metres from the railway.

Both lines between Hartlepool and Seaham were closed so investigations could be carried out.

There were no cancellations and only minor delays to services before the line reopened at 7pm.

A Murton man, who suffered ‘catastrophic’ injuries in a cycling accident, says his outlook on life has completely changed since surviving the incident.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you.