A teenager unwittingly discovered a live Second World War bomb packed with 250kg of explosives on a North Yorkshire riverbe

Monday, 7 April 2025 16:07

By Dylan Connell and Charlie Fenton

– then accidentally crashed his underwater drone into it.

Cameron Makewell, 14, was driving the drone in the River Ure, between Bishop Monkton and the Newby Hall estate, when he came across a strange cylindrical object in the murky low-visibility water.

0:00 / 2:39

Watch: teenager crashes underwater drone

into a live WWII bomb in the River Ure. Video: Adam Makewell/SWNS

The young explorer, who is currently studying for his GCSEs, believed it to be a gas canister until his dad, Adam Makewell, 47, told him that he had stumbled across a Second World War Bomb.

And, at the time, they didn't know was live.

"I didn't believe my dad at first when he told me it was a bomb – I thought there was no way,” said Cameron. "I was thinking to myself 'oh my God' and my heart started racing but it didn't stop me from getting a closer look – I didn't know it was live at the time."

The Second World War bomb found by Adam Makewell and his son Cameron Makewell in the River Ure (Image: Adam Makewell/SWNS)The father and son duo, from Rippon, near Leeds, were stood about 50 metres from the two-metre-long shell.

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