A young boy on holiday with his family discovered a World War II hand grenade whilst playing on the beach in St Lawrence last week.
11-year-old Elliot Finegan, from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, was playing in Mount Bay on Tuesday when he came across a stone which scarily resembled a hand grenade.
Mother Natalie and Father Drew realised it may be a real hand grenade and immediately called 999 to inform the Coastguard and Police of the potentially explosive discovery.
Police officers responded quickly and after having assessed the situation, called in the Royal Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team from Portsmouth. The officers then sealed off the beach until the experts arrived from the mainland.
It was decided that a controlled explosion was required and following further checks on the area, this was carried out by the bomb disposal experts. The explosion was heard in the area by many.
Elliot said:
“I was playing on the beach and found an unusual rusty-brown ‘stone’ which looked a lot like a hand grenade. I told Mum and we all agreed to leave it in a safe place off the beach and call the coastguard.
“This is the most exciting thing ever to happen on our holidays and pleased no one was hurt. The explosion was really loud”.
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Bet he can’t wait to tell all his mates when he goes back to school…He must have been excited to find that..
Well done to the lad.Looked like a stone to me.I would have chucked it for the dog to fetch
Well done lad, and the family, you took the correct action.