Sunseekers find unexploded hand-grenade on beach

A HAND-GRENADE was found by sunseekers on Les Deveses beach on Wednesday afternoon, leading to a chunk of the coast being cordoned off and the TEDAX explosives squad called in.

The weapon, an OF 37, was of the type used in World War II and probably the Spanish Civil War, but was still being actively deployed up to the 1970s, when they were replaced by plastic versions.

Filled with 90 grams of pulverised Tolite, weighing between 200 and 300 grams in total and with a body of sheet steel or aluminium, the OF 37, or Mle 37, was used as a 'training grenade' for the French armed forces between the 1960s and 1990s, when the body was filled with powdered chalk instead of explosives.

It is not clear whether the one discovered on the beach based in El Verger still contains explosives – or chalk – and it is not made from plastic, meaning it would probably have been manufactured a minimum of 50 years ago.

The pin is still in it, and the top is sealed.

Bathers who found it immediately called the 112 emergency hotline, and local and National Police sealed off around 100 square metres of the beach as a precaution.

The TEDAX squad has taken the grenade away to detonate it under controlled conditions.

If it is from the Civil War, its discovery would not be uncommon – unexploded bombs and shells have often washed up on beaches nationwide in the decades since the conflict.

Although the temptation is to take them home as a souvenir, experts warn the public to leave them well alone – even 81 years after the war ended, they could still detonate and cause considerable damage.

One which was set off by the armed forces' explosives deactivation team (EOD) in June 2015 out to sea off Dénia's Marineta Cassiana beach created a massive geyser and caused the ground to tremble across the town, leaving residents fearing they were in the middle of an earthquake.