Blackpool beach mortar: watch video footage of bomb disposal experts testing the "unidentified object" before a controlled explosion
The device was found by lifelong metal detectorist Alistair Wilks, 51, and his partner Kath Firth, 60, at around 12.20pm this afternoon.
The pair suspected that it was an unexploded mortar, though one emergency official said he believes it could be just a fishing weight.
"I got a really deep signal and I nearly gave up on it," says Alistair, "and in the last scoop there was a large thing there.
"I got my sand scoop and hit it, and couldn't believe my eyes when I had done that, because then I knew exactly what it was."
In the video, a military bomb disposal expert can be seen testing the object where it lays in the sand.
Emergency workers begin piling sandbags nearby, before the incoming tide forces them to remove them.
In a tweet, Blackpool Police said the cordon had been lifted after "the item has been removed and a controlled explosion has taken place by our EOD colleagues."