Teenagers catch live World War II grenade in river

By Tim Sigsworth via SWNS

These teenagers hooked a live World War II grenade while magnet fishing.

Alfie Rock and Zak Carroll, both 18, were trawling the River Wye in Hereford, UK, on Sunday when they hauled in the explosive catch.

The anglers, who run a fish and tackle shop in the city, had never gone magnet fishing before and thought they were in for a dull day reeling in old nails.

Alfie claims West Mercia Police initially thought it might be an old light bulb – before bomb squad specialists double-checked and realized it was a live grenade.

It was then blown up in a controlled demolition in a nearby field, with the two friends left grateful for their lives.

Alfie said: “We hooked on straight away and as we were pulling it up we were joking around saying ‘it looks like a grenade.'"

Zak said: “When we realized it could be a grenade, I didn’t know how to feel.

“We weren’t scared but we were worrying it could go off and other people might be around us.”

Alfie added: “I didn’t feel scared, far from it really. It was more a treat than anything.

“The fact of potentially having a grenade gave us an adrenaline rush.

“There are magnet fishermen who magnet fish for years and years and years and then you get two teenagers who go out for their first time and pull something up that those lifelong magnet fishermen have only dreamt of.

“Especially it being from World War Two means it would have been there for a long, long time.

“If it has been stuck there, the amount of people who swam and dived in that bit of water in the past 80 years is thousands. It’s crazy.”

Alfie and Zak said it wasn’t until explosives experts confirmed it was live that they realized how much danger they had been in.

Alfie said: “The police didn’t touch the grenade but they picked up the magnet with the grenade on the end and couldn’t confirm it.

“They were talking to themselves and were saying it could be a light bulb.

“I was a bit confused because I don’t think glass rusts and it was a bit too heavy and a different shape to be a light bulb.

“When the bomb squad came down they confirmed it instantly as a live American World War Two hand grenade. I was like ‘wow’.”

Zak added: “It was scary to see it blown up thinking we'd had that in our hands and it could have gone off at any second.”

A West Mercia Police spokesperson said: “We were called to Victoria Bridge in Hereford shortly after 4 p.m. on Sunday after a call from a magnet fisherman reporting he had pulled what looked to be a live grenade complete with a pull detonator out of the River Wye.

“We called the bomb disposal squad and Herefordshire Council highways provided sandbags.

“We also informed the ambulance service as a safety precaution.

“It was confirmed on site that it was a live World War II American hand grenade about three inches in length.

“We taped off an area in nearby King George’s Field with a 50m cordon and the bomb disposal squad put sandbags around the device.

“A controlled explosion was carried out shortly after 6.30 p.m. disposing of the grenade safely.

“No one came to any harm and the hole created was filled in with sand.”