Houses in Grove Park evacuated after grenade scare

Image above: Found in a bungalow in Grove Park; picture from Lexie Carducci 

“With a bit of Googling we found out it was from circa 1963 from the French/Vietnam war”

Houses in Grove Park were evacuated and a road closed after what was believed to be an unexploded hand grenade was found on Monday morning (6 November).

The discovery was made by Lexie Carducci in the loft of a bungalow beside Grove Park Bridge. Police arrived and closed off Grove Park Gardens after being called at 11.42am.

Ms Carducci posted on social media:

“So, the most mad thing has happened on our Monday morning.

“A grenade was found in the bungalow which we’ve lived in for five years, which has been in the bungalow since we’ve been living there, so we had to call the police, they’re sending out a bomb squad, they have to do a controlled explosion on it …

“I just can’t believe we’ve lived there for five years with a live grenade in the loft.”

A police car and van arrived at the scene and officers knocked on the doors of neighbouring properties to inform residents of the situation, asking those closest to the scene to leave while an assessment was made.

Images above: Police at Grove Park on Monday; via Instagram

“What you really don’t want to find on a building site”

The good news was that police identified the ‘hand grenade’ as a dummy. Ms Carducci posted updates on Instagram, including: “What you really don’t want to find on a building site.

“We bought this bungalow off someone who had lived in it since 1980 and it’s about to be demolished so actually the grenade could have done my job for me. With a bit of Googling we found out it was from circa 1963 from the French/Vietnam war.”