Bomb squad called as '˜grenade' falls out of rubbish bag at recycling plant
The bomb squad was called to a waste recycling plant in Kirkham after a '˜grenade' rolled through machinery and landed on the floor.
Staff at D&A Scrivens and Son, in Blackpool Road, were ordered to evacuate after the device, thought to have been dumped in a bag of rubbish, was discovered.
Armed response officers were called shortly after noon yesterday, and quickly drafted in the Army’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team. They determined the grenade was a dummy replica and removed it, business partner Andrew Scrivens said.
“It was a resin one and quite detailed,” he added. “It had gone through the waste stream and was rolling around on the floor. Obviously it had been put in a rubbish bag of some description.”
Mr Scrivens said he picked the dummy up after finding it, and put it to one side.
He said: “Everybody moved away while we called police. We didn’t know if it was real or not, and the armed response came and had a look.
“They couldn’t figure out if was real. We had to shut the site and the bomb squad came out. They knew it wasn’t real and took it away. It was a proper replica but it didn’t have any workings inside it.”
A spokeswoman for Lancashire Police said a call came in at 12.05pm to ‘reports that somebody had found what they believed to be a hand grenade’. “We attended and advised staff to withdraw from the area,” she added.
“The site was completely closed. It turns out to just be a dummy, and it was removed.”
Officers left the scene at around 4.20pm.
One worker, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, said: “The grenade had gone through some machinery and dropped on the floor.”
He said officers cordoned off part of the yard before the grenade was confirmed fake.