The infamous SS Richard Montgomery 'bomb ship' off the coast of Sheppey could detonate and cause a huge tsunami, a new Sky drama has predicted.

Cobra: Cyberwar, which follows the UK's leading politicians as they are tasked with a catastrophe threatening the country, starts with the American liberty ship and its potentially explosive cargo.

The first-look trailer for Sky's new drama Cobra:Cyberwar

The ship has remained a danger to shipping in the Thames Estuary since it sank – one mile off Sheerness – on August 20, 1944, loaded with explosives.

Today, there is a constantly monitored exclusion zone around the ship.

Many believe the explosives, mainly phosphor bombs, are still unsafe and could lead to a tsunami which would flood Sheerness, Southend and, even, parts of London if they ever went off.

However, the scale of any explosion is open to debate and would depend on the explosives remaining viable.

Every year the government’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency commissions a survey to check how dangerous the cargo is.

Sky's new series of Cobra depicts the explosion of a munitions ship off the Kent coastline, causing a tidal wave.

The disaster triggers a national crisis and the Prime Minister, played by Robert Carlyle, is also faced with a cyber-attack on the national infrastructure, which results in unchecked vehicles carrying hazardous loads entering the port of Dover from Europe.

Ben Richards, Cobra creator, told i news: “Successive governments have taken a ‘wait and see’ view over the SS Montgomery. That’s quite a scary strategy which has parallels with the pandemic.”

“The view is that any attempt to decant the explosives could set them off so we ended up in a state of paralysis. A detonation causing a tidal flood might sound implausible but nobody saw the pandemic heading our way.”

The first series, which was one of Sky's most watched box sets, predicted a massive solar flare hitting Earth, with the potential to disrupt power grids.

The second series, which is created and written by Ben Richards, looks at what happens when cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure and fake news are used to subvert democracy.

The six-episode series is now available on Sky Max and streaming service NOW.

Read more: All the latest news from Sheppey