Bomb disposal unit detonate grenade
AN Army bomb squad was called in after a Runcorn auction house discovered a live First World War stick grenade among a collection due to go under the hammer.
Potential disaster was avert after an in-house expert flagged the item up as suspicious.
Directors at The Auction Centre, on Berkeley Court, Manor Park, received the explosive as part of a private collection on Tuesday, October 10, and contacted the police two days later after realising it was potentially deadly, and officers in turn called in the Army.
A Royal Logistics Corp bomb disposal team picked up the German ‘stielhandgranate’ on Friday afternoon and removed it to the Creamfields dance music festival site on Chester Road in Daresbury for safe ● detonation.
Had the grenade gone under the hammer undetected and its six-second fuse not activated, it was expected to fetch between £250 and £350, and is among a set of lots featuring German, American and British weapons, medals and uniforms.
Cheshire police tweeted at 2.41pm to say the explosive had been found and was going to be destroyed in a controlled explosion, which was confirmed at 3.35pm to have taken place.
Michael Bain, Auction Centre director, said: “We’ve had some drama.
“We had a World War One stick grenade which was consigned to auction and our expert examined it and became suspicious and said ‘we want to have this examined’.
“We reported it to the police and the police reported it to the bomb disposal team – we had a visit from them and they’re going to do a controlled explosion in the Creamfields area.
“It was fun while it lasted! “We haven’t had the bomb disposal people before, that’s a one off. It’s part of a private collection being sold in a specialist military sale on October 28 and this is one of the collection.”