AN UNDER-SEA investigation may be carried out after more rusted munitions were washed up on the East Coast.

Experts are studying a plea to investigate the sea bed off Redcar amid fears that a wrecked munitions ship may be breaking up, giving up its volatile cargo.

Coun David Walsh, leader of Redcar and Cleveland Council, has written to the UK's hydrographics office, asking for their help.

A spokeswoman said: "We have received the letter. Its contents are being investigated and looked at. Our chief executive (Dr Wyn Williams) will be replying to it.''

At the weekend an army bomb disposal team recovered the second rifle grenade to be washed up on to the Teesside shoreline - the fifth piece of rusted ordnance to be recovered in recent weeks.

During the previous weekend, Navy divers blew up what resembled the spike of a contact mine which had wires protruding from it.

Three weeks ago divers blew up a First World War shell after it was washed up on Saltburn beach; its discovery leading to the evacuation of the town's pier and sea front.

Dave Horsley, chairman of the North East Static and Trawl Society, said: "In our immediate area there are hundreds of wrecks lying off shore and the bulk of them are wartime.''

Coun Walsh said: "I am concerned we may well have a ship - which carried munitions down the East Coast in the First World War and which may have been torpedoed or sunk - breaking up and losing its cargo.

"Older people in the area say ammunition was dumped off the Teesside coast immediately after the war. I understand these munitions were in steel containers and I am worried these may be breaking up as well.''