Four drums which washed up on Waxham beach this morning sparked a chemical incident alert.

Fire crews from Stalham, Martham, and two from Sprowston - including a chemical incident unit - were called to the scene by Yarmouth coastguard at about 1pm.

But the 25-litre drums were all found to be empty, according to a coastguard spokesman.

He added: 'They were probably lost overboard and had been in the sea for sometime - they were quite battered. We removed them to outside Sea Palling Lifeboat House and the local authority, North Norfolk District Council, will remove them from there.'