Grenade found in River Medway

Army officers had to be called to a home in Aylesford after the discovery.   Finn Macdiarmid reports.

Transcript

00:00Most people think of fishing as a relaxing pastime, but for one family, their fishing

00:04hobby meant the police and the army had to get involved after they unknowingly fished

00:09up a live grenade.

00:11Chris Homden and his son Leighton started magnet fishing around four years ago, throwing

00:16a powerful magnet into rivers and dragging it along the bed to see what they could find.

00:21And for the most part, that would be small pieces of metal, parts of bicycles, or shopping

00:26So when they discovered something so rusted they couldn't even tell what it was yet,

00:30they were pretty excited.

00:55But when Chris got home and cleaned the find, he recognised the raised pattern and manufacturer's

01:00initials of a World War 2 grenade.

01:03He called the police, who had to turn off their radios so not to interfere with the

01:06grenade.

01:07They then called the army, who took the explosive into a nearby field to safely detonate it.

01:12Not something you really expect on a Sunday evening.

01:16Very exciting, turns more frightening when we heard on my back camera into the garden

01:24the army state that it was live, that's when it became a little bit more frightening than

01:29exciting.

01:30But yeah, not something you really expect to happen every day.

01:35While the family were scared on that Sunday evening, they still enjoy magnet fishing as

01:39it helps Leighton with the stresses of school and daily life, as he has autism and ADHD.

01:44Chris asked if I wanted to give magnet fishing a try, and although I'd never been, I didn't

01:48think it'd be too difficult.

02:17Well after finally actually getting the magnet into the water, I still didn't have anything

02:21to show for my efforts, much less a grenade.

02:24Finn McDermid for KMTV in Aylesford.