DRAMATIC shockwaves were felt on land when explosives experts detonated a mine trawled up by fishermen off Margate early today.

Spectators on shore saw a huge plume of water a mile off the coast and heard a loud bang just after 10.30am.

The force of the blast, off Palm Bay, caused spray to travel up to a mile from the incident.

Shoppers and office workers were startled by the the explosion which caused buildings to shake and vibrations on land.

People in buildings in Cliftonville rushed out into the street to see what was happening.

Johnny Lewis, a kmfm radio presenter, said: "There was a huge great bang and a blooming great plume of white water. It really shocked me. The seagulls scattered everywhere.

"It was quite exciting. There were quite a few people waiting for it."

The incident prompted many calls to kmfm by listeners wondering if the shockwave had been fallout from an earthquake.

The controlled underwater explosion was carried out by the Royal Navy’s Explosives Ordnance Division from Portsmouth

They had been called in by the coastguard who had been alerted by the fishermen.

The bomb was estimated to contain about 1,000lb of explosives.

Coastguard Pete Overton said shipping had been alerted and a nautical mile marked off as a temporary exclusion zone. The mine had been lowered back to the seabed.

Explosives officers approached the site in a rigid inflatable boat and dived to attach detonators to the device.

Mr Overton said: "It is generally quite a spectacular display, with a big plume of water a fraction of a second before a large thump.

"These occurences are fairly common. We tend to get two or three a year, sometimes more.

"This was a very busy part of the world during the war as far as dropping bombs goes. A lot of bombs were dropped in the Channel by aircraft who missed their targets or had been shot down and lost their load before crashing, or just general bombing.

"Thankfully, most of them fell well out to sea but occasionally they are washed up on shore. If anyone spots something metallic or strangely shaped they should contact the coastguard immediately."

He added that the force of such an explosion was transmitted through the water to the land.