PORTLAND Port has asked Royal Navy divers to investigate reports of unexploded bombs near Osprey Quay.

The safety checks come after claims from a former champion spear fisherman who said he found two bombs in the harbour more than thirty years ago.

Colin House, 71, of Eastdown Avenue, Preston, said he found the six-foot long parachute mines during dives in Portland Port in 1977 and swam straight out of the water to report them.

Mr House said the Royal Navy has never contacted him despite reminding them of the mines when he checked on them again in 1980, and 1990.

He said he contacted Portland Port in 2006 but after no response has now spoken to them again.

A spokesman for Portland Port confirmed Mr House has contacted them.

She said: "We are tasking navy divers to investigate as we want to make sure it is safe.

"We have no evidence at the moment that the bombs are there and everything was swept and cleared when the Royal Navy left."

Mr House, a former British spearfishing champion, said: "I believe they are still there because they would have had to clear the area if they dealt with them and everyone would have known about it.

"I was diving in the 1970s when I saw a dark shape the size of a rowing boat lying on the seabed about 15 to 20 feet deep.

"When I looked closer it was a huge bomb and it frightened the life out of me. As I came into the shallow water I suddenly came across another stuck in the seabed."

"I've been back to the area to check and the've been there each time, looking at me again. I couldn't believe it."

Mr House believes the mine in the shallower water may have been built upon already.

Dean and Reddyhoff is investing around £24 million in a new 500-berth marina and helicopter pad at Portland.

Operations director James Beaver said they were unaware of any bombs and that they have previously had the seabed hydrographically surveyed.

The Olympic Delivery Authority has invested £7 million in the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy.

Work has already begun on a permanent new 150m slipway and new race-boat, parking, lifting and mooring facilities.

More than 4,000 people had to be evacuated from an exclusion zone on Portland in 1995 when a Luftwaffe bomb was found at Portland football ground.

The discovery was made by workers skimming the surface of the club's previous pitch while preparing to turn it into a quarry.

A Royal Engineers' bomb disposal squad defused the 1,100lb German bomb and detonated a controlled explosion.