WW2 mines safely detonated off Eysturoy coast

Two amateur divers last week came upon a mine near land in the Eysturoy village of Lamba.

“Last Thursday, my daughter Anna Katrina and I did our first-ever dive from the quay in Lamba. We spotted something on the seabed very close to land which looked unusual,” says Reidar Kirke, who lives in Saltangará.

“On closer inspection, we realised that this might be a mine.”

They sent photos of the mysterious-looking object to Arctic Command Denmark, which sent a mine disposal team to the area last week.

The team soon confirmed that it was a British mine dating back to World War 2. While searching the area, they came across another two similar mines.

Potential hazard

“The explosives inside the mines are still fully intact even though the mines have been stuck on the seabed for 80 years, so they are still capable of causing substantial damage,” says Christian Gammeltoft, a senior sergeant at the Danish Navy Diving Service.

The mines were carefully removed from the seabed and taken to an area some 100 metres off the coast of Rituvík where they were safely detonated.

“We have so far only searched in parts the Lambavík bay,” says Gammeltoft.

“We have carried out some preliminary sonar searches in Lambavík and we found no indications of more mines in this particular area, but we cannot rule out that may be other such mines elsewhere.”

Hvidbjørnen, sjóverjuskip, danskt sjóverjuskip

Caption: 

Danish patrol vessel “Hvidbjørnen” took part in the mine disposal operation. Further visuals are available in the video clips linked to below

Brian Jensen, the acting captain of Danish patrol vessel “Hvidbjørnen”, which took part in the operation, says this is an unusual task for his crew.

“It was an incredibly exciting experience for me personally and for my crew, and it is obviously very satisfying to witness how our expert divers managed to solve this problem the way they did.”

Read the Faroese versions of this article here and here.

More Faroese News in English.