Emergency flares found near estuary

The four flares were discovered on Sunday by Blackpool dog walker Mark Lewis by the nature reserve.

Mr Lewis, an operations manager for the North West ambulance service tweeted a photo of the flares and said that all of them still appeared live and added that it “could have resulted in all kinds of scenarios if it fell into the wrong hands.”

Mr Lewis contacted Fleetwood Coastguard who were sent to dispose of them.

The coastguard said they had received reports of “pyrotechnics being found” and a team was sent out to investigate.

They undertook a safety inspection of the flares and discovered some of them were more than 25 years out of date.

The flares were packaged safely and sent to the Crosby coastguard operations base where they can be disposed of safely.