Grenade found in skip at waste centre

Dave Gooderham

SHOCKED workers at a waste recycling unit have described how they found a Second World War hand grenade dumped in a container of rubbish.

Staff at the unit in Sudbury spoke of their horror on making the discovery in a skip in Sandy Lane yesterday morning.

Bomb disposal experts were called to the scene, which had been cordoned off from the public, and removed the grenade before branding the person who dumped it “irresponsible”.

Although the grenade was spent, recycling officers and bomb disposal teams used the incident to highlight the dangers of simply disposing of dead ammunition at local centres.

A spokesman for the Royal Logistics Corps bomb disposal unit said: “We sent a two-man team to the recycling centre and found the hand grenade was safe and recovered it.

“That said, whoever left it in the container was very irresponsible. Even if they knew it was safe, most other people would not have known.

“Fortunately, the staff at the Sudbury unit acted responsibly and the incident was dealt with quickly. We would always advise people who find ammunition to not touch or play with it and simply call the police who will contact us.”

The Colchester-based bomb disposal team were called to the Sudbury Household Waste Recycling Centre at about 8.30am yesterday after two members of staff spotted the grenade.

Site supervisor Adam Davies said: “Two members of our workforce found a hand grenade inside one of the metal containers.

“We closed the site off, something we would always do where health and safety is concerned and there is something hazardous in the container, and called the police who arrived sharply as did the bomb disposal unit which took the hand grenade away.

“We were concerned that it could have been dangerous and staff were unsure how serious it was - it was a hand grenade at the end of the day. We would urge any member of the public who has any kind of dead ammunition or explosive to contact the police to deal with it.”