Watch: Bomb Explodes on St. Pete Beach

Check out the video of the detonation below.

A person out for a stroll on St. Pete Beach Sunday morning encountered a serious blast from the past on the surf line, prompting a full law enforcement call out and even the arrival of military personnel.

Rather than a message in a bottle or an unusual seashell, it seems the person came across a 4-foot-long, barnacle-encrusted bomb that dated back to the World War II era. Pinellas County deputies were the first on the scene just after 8:30 a.m. Sunday, confirming the find was indeed a military ordinance. Pinellas deputies, in turn, called on the Hillsborough County Bomb Squad to assist.

As bomb experts from Hillsborough inspected the ordinance, the immediate beach area was evacuated as were homes along the beachside of Sunset Way.

Hillsborough deputies took a look at the “large cylindrical object” and decided it was best to call in the pros from MacDill since the ordinance appeared military in nature.

It didn’t take MacDill Air Force Base’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team (EOD) long to determine the bomb was indeed from the World War II era, an email to media from MacDill’s 6th Air Mobility Wing stated. Rather than transport the ordinance for disposal, MacDill and Hillsborough bomb teams dug in right at the beach, creating a spot in the sand where the M122 Photoflash bomb could be safely detonated.

The bomb was exploded in front of a gathering of onlookers around 5:10 p.m., MacDill noted in its email. Following a cleanup of the area, the beach reopened for business as usual.

It remains unclear just how the bomb ended up on the beach or how long it had been submerged. Flash bombs were dropped from planes during World War II and detonated in the air to provide light for photography.

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