Danger UXB as grenade found in school grounds

9:28am Friday 25th June 2004

CHILDREN were kept in their classrooms last week after a Second World War hand grenade was unearthed at an infant school.

Police and bomb disposal crews raced to Chalfont St Giles Infant School in School Lane after a photographer visiting the school discovered the rusty grenade sticking out of a flower bed near the car park.

The grenade was believed to have been used by the Home Guard during the Second World War and was at some point discarded.

Headteacher Karol Whittington said: "We had the bomb disposal team here and the police. It was quite good. It was very interesting. I would have liked to have actually seen it but I wasn't going to get too close."

Children were "excited" by the discovery, she said.

Site manager Tim Nash picked up the rusty grenade from where it lay in the flower bed and put it in a hollowed out section of a tree.

He said: "The school photographer was in the car park and said 'what do you think this is?'.

"Without thinking he bent down and picked it up.

"I took it off him. There is an old tree in the car park and I put it in the trunk of a tree.

"The police were here after an hour. I cordoned off the area and I stood out there for the entire afternoon making sure no one went in and out of the car park. The prime concern was for the school and neighbouring houses."

He added: "People have been using silly words like hero which isn't deserved really."

After sealing off the car park Mr Nash went round to neighbouring houses closest to where the hand grenade lay and asked people to move away.

Police officers then cordoned off the road and waited for bomb disposal crews.

Army bomb disposal crews X-rayed the grenade before taking it away in a blast box for it to be destroyed.

Rust had corroded 90 per cent of the inside of the grenade, Mr Nash added.