Bomb squad called after Worksop grandfather and grandchildren find live WW2 grenade with metal detector

David Ecob and his grandchildren eight-year-old Jasmine and seven-year-old Isabelle Stansfield had to run for cover and call the police after making the discovery on Sunday.

The trio found the grenade after digging down just three inches below the dirt in a foxhole on a walk off Clumber Road in Worksop – near to Clumber Park.

Police attended the scene and a controlled explosion was carried out around 2pm that day by Joint Services Explosive Ordinance Disposal Engineers.Mr Ecob, who was in the Navy from 1979 to 1986 and served in the Falklands War said: “The kids have been pestering me all the time to go out with the metal detector so on Sunday morning I said I’d take them out. We went over about ten of these foxholes with the metal detector and each time it was going mad. I thought it’d be bottles tops or something like that but on the last one the kids wanted me to dig so about three inches down I hit something with the spade and there it was. Being ex forces I knew straight away it was a hand grenade and it was surrounded by bullets.

"I was shocked. It was a case of ‘quick come on girls, straight back to the car’. The worst thing was I’d hit it twice with the spade before we could see what it was.

“The kids were getting really upset saying they didn’t want to go out walking again but later on when everything had calmed down we were saying they’d have such a story to tell the other kids and teachers about what they go up to in the holidays and they were quite excited about that.”

Mr Ecob is now calling for the area, a popular hot spot for families and dog walkers, to be cordoned off and inspected as he is certain there will be other grenades out there.

Mr Ecob, 61, of Windmill Lane added: "It’s extremely dangerous. It’s an area where you get a lot of dog walker and kids playing and there must be about 30 of these foxholes there, it’s full of them and if there’s one grenade out there they’ll be others.

“Personally I’d say the area needs to be cordoned off and inspected, I know it would cost a lot to do but what’s the cost of a life, you can’t put a price on that. All it takes is for a child to be down there and start kicking one around. These are designed to blow people up and if one does go off it could set others off quite easily, it’s so dangerous."

A Nottinghamshire Police spokesman said: “A controlled explosion was carried out around 2pm on Sunday after a report of a hand grenade and ammunition found on land off Clumber Road, Worksop.

“As a precaution, Nottinghamshire Police officers cordoned off the area and requested the assistance of the Joint Services Explosive Ordinance Disposal Engineers. Bomb disposal experts carried out a successful controlled explosion. No evacuations were necessary.”