A peaceful family beach day nearly turned tragic in Wales back in 2015, when a mom, dad, and their two young children unknowingly played next to a 70-year-old unexploded World War II bomb — thinking it was just a harmless buoy.
It wasn’t until five days later that the real danger was revealed.
A Beach Day Turned Nightmare
Kelly Gravell, then 32, had taken her two kids, Erin, 6, and Ellis, 4, to the shores of Burry Port in Carmarthenshire, a beach the family visited often. Like many parents, she was focused on giving her children a fun, carefree day by the sea.
Instead, they ended up clambering around what they thought was a seaweed-covered buoy, completely unaware it was actually a live mine left over from World War II.
“We were close to disaster – it’s shocking,” Kelly later told reporters.
“Oops”: Dad Posts Pics of Kids on Bomb
It wasn’t just Kelly who was stunned. Her husband, Gareth Gravell, took to social media with a jaw-dropping tweet after officials shut down the beach and detonated the device days later.
“So the buoy my kids were jumping on all weekend turns out to be a WWII bomb. Oops,” he wrote, alongside now-viral images of Erin and Ellis posing next to the mine.
The photos were snapped just days before officials from Carmarthenshire Council identified the object and called in the bomb squad. Rangers had become suspicious of the item and, upon closer inspection, realized it was in fact a wartime explosive.
Controlled Explosion Shakes the Harbor
Once authorities confirmed the threat, the area was evacuated and a controlled detonation was carried out on the far side of the harbor. Footage of the dramatic explosion later made its way online, shocking viewers with just how massive the blast was.
Kelly recalled how they had joked about the mysterious object during their visit: “We were more interested in the barnacles on it. We even said at the time it looked like a big bomb – but it just looked like a giant buoy.”
“We’ll Definitely Be More Cautious”
The Gravell family runs a waste management business and says they’re no strangers to strange finds. But this one definitely topped the list.
“I wouldn’t be worried about going back, but we will definitely be more cautious when we do,” Kelly said. “We’ll definitely think twice before messing with something like that in the future, and we went down for a look to see it get blown up.”
Public Safety Officials Apologize
Carmarthenshire Council’s executive board member for leisure, Councillor Meryl Gravell, confirmed that proper procedures were followed once the bomb was discovered and apologized to the public for the temporary beach closure.
Hidden Danger in Plain Sight
What looked like a forgotten chunk of marine equipment turned out to be a deadly reminder of wartime history, and the Gravell family unknowingly had a front-row seat.
Their story is a powerful reminder to never underestimate the things we stumble across, especially in places where danger might be buried just beneath the surface.
Next time you see something unusual on the beach… you might want to think twice before snapping a selfie with it.
