Farewell to Lionel the Lobster

He had been squatting inside an unexploded mine which had remained undisturbed for the past 60 years. But the lobster nicknamed Lionel paid the ultimate price when Royal Navy divers failed to coax the stubborn crustacean out of his home - which tragically became his watery grave.

Divers stumbled upon the 600lb mine off Swanage, Dorset. They took pictures of it and alerted Portland coastguard, who contacted the Royal Navy bomb disposal unit. The experts inspected the device and found Lionel inside.

He refused to be temped out of his make-shift house and delivered a nasty nip to the frogmen. The bomb squad had no choice but to set charges to the mine with Lionel still inside and, after setting up a 1,000m cordon, blew it up. The huge explosion sent a 50ft plume of water shooting skywards and shook the nearby town of Swanage.

Lionel the lobster sadly did not survive. A spokesman for Portland coastguard said: 'It seems that the lobster made his home inside the mine, in the hole where the parachute would have come out.

'We don't know how long he was living in it but we named him Lionel as soon as we realised he was there.'The mine was spotted by divers who took photographs of it to show us. 'It is a Second World War mine, which was dropped by the Germans and has lain there unseen for over 60 years.

'Overnight, we arranged for the bomb disposal unit to come and look at it. When they saw what it was, they cleared a 1,000m zone around and detonated it. 'It sent up a huge jet of water - it did look very dramatic. We received three 999 calls from people worried about it.

'Unfortunately, the bomb disposal unit have a job to do and it wasn't possible to save Lionel. 'We've had a moment's silence for him though, because he was no doubt blown to smithereens in the explosion.'

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