A CONTROLLED explosion was carried out by bomb disposal experts on a sea mine found by a diver.

The mine was spotted by a diver from the boat Kyarratoo during a drift dive two miles south of the White Nothe in Weymouth Bay.

The diver reported it to Portland Coastguard and marked its position with a buoy.

A Royal Navy bomb disposal team from the Southern Diving Unit in Plymouth set up an exclusion zone and carried out the explosion yesterday at 2.30pm.

Portland Coastguard was scrambled yesterday after they received a distress call from an unknown source in the north west corner of Portland Harbour.

The nature of the distress was not known but a lifeboat was launched and Wyke Coastguard searched the area and enquiries were made.

Nothing was found and the search was called off.

A yacht, called Callum Star, which had three people on board, reported engine failure and was becalmed to the north of the Shambles in Weymouth Bay, near Portland and another yacht, Betty D, towed it back to Weymouth.

Coastguards conducted a search of Portland Harbour and around the island after several people spotted a single red flare but further investigations revealed it had been fired from inland.

Elsewhere Swanage Coastguard helped police when a woman threatened to jump off a Dorset cliff yesterday.

The woman was on Peveril Point in Swanage but a police officer was lowered on to the cliff edge and persuaded her to return with him.