Five NATO warships dock on the River Thames

ITV News London Reporter Sam Holder was on board one of five NATO warships docked on the Thames.

Five NATO mine-clearing warships have docked on the River Thames, one right by Tower Bridge, days after detonating a British World War Two bomb off the coast of the Netherlands.

The ships are here for a scheduled port visit, but also, they say, as a show of reassurance on the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Thousands of mines remain in the North Sea alone from the First and Second World Wars -and mines are now being used in waters around Ukraine.

Some mines are detonated by underwater drones, others by (a very steady) human hand.

Marine First Class Roel, NATO diver told ITV News London: "When you get below 50 metres, as I said it was dark, you turn your light on and you have just one beam of light illuminating the area and then year, most of the time, sometimes lights go out or there's too much rubble on the seabed so there's no sight at all and you have to do everything by hand.

"So in effect, you are handling mines blind." The equipment used by the German diving team has been specially designed for stealth. Lieutenant Wolfram Fuchs from NATO said: "It is amagnetic, it doesn't produce any sounds or bubbles, so the mines can't detect the diver being there and he can approach the mines relatively safe."

A minute's silence was held on board on Friday to mark a year of war in Ukraine on what has been a symbolic visit to the capital - a show of reassurance according to NATO, with war feeling closer now than it has for decades