‘Torpedo’ turns out to be harmless float
An expert with the Royal Thai Navy’s Mine Squadron on Thursday said an item found off Phuket’s Naiyang Beach, which resembled and was initially presumed to be an unexploded torpedo dumped before World War II, was a float for a mechanical minesweeper device.
Major Thanchaiyan Tantiamnuay and four other experts from the Mine Squadron inspected the item on Thursday morning for 30 minutes.
Thanchaiyan said it was probably a large float used by a foreign ship’s mechanical minesweeper device used to detect moored mines, which were triggered by contact and held below the surface by a mooring attached to an anchor, during the World War II.
The floats were used to cut the anchor chain to allow the moored mines to surface for disposal, Thanchaiyan said, adding that the device was harmless and the public should not be concerned.
He said an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team from the Royal Thai Army Area 3 would conduct an X-ray as a precaution and then proceed to remove the item from the site possibly for further study.
The 4.5-metre-long, 150-centimetre diameter metallic item was found buried under sand about 30 metres off the beach last week.