Teen goes fishing and reels in cache of IRA weapons
A SCHOOLBOY fishing for metal valuables has reeled out a suspected IRA cache of 40 weapons.
I’ve never found anything like this before. There were a few whole weapons, but not many
James Cork's afternoon of fishing with his friend took an interesting turn when he unknowingly hauled in a Browning .50 Caliber machine gun - used by British and US forces in Afghanistan - and an M16 assault rifle.
The 16-year-old even took one of the guns home to play - before his mother alerted the police.
Both weapons played key roles in the Provisional IRA during The Troubles conflict in northern Ireland.
James, who was fishing in a river in Greylake, Somerset, said he was "shocked."
"I’ve never found anything like this before. There were a few whole weapons, but not many.
"Some were machine guns, pistols and revolvers. And there was a massive machine gun on a stand.
"There was a fisherman getting quite angry as I was disturbing the water. But when he saw what I pulled out, he came and helped," he said.
In his six months of pursuing the hobby, James has only ever found bits of scrap metal.
But experts say his discovery is likely to belong to the Republicans, when they were meant to be declaring their arms in 2001.
Mother Katherine, 37, says she immediately dialled 999 after she noticed her son playing with the gun, thought to have been a 1930s Smith & Wesson .38.
Armed police arrived minutes later.
She told The Sun: "I said ‘Bring it downstairs, leave it in the kitchen and don’t touch it’."
Police searched the river the next day for the Browning and the rest of the cache, which included parts of a Nazi MG42 machine gun, a Czech SA23 9mm submachine gun and a steel butt thought to be from our Paras’ version of the AK47 assault rifle.
A police spokesman said they would all be "destroyed."
He said: "The items found were disassembled parts of about 40 firearms, badly rusted and beyond use.
"They will all be destroyed."
