An Angus street was at the centre of a grenade scare drama.
Bomb disposal experts swooped on Stedfast Lane in Forfar just before lunchtime yesterday, after the suspect device was found in a vacant property.
The alarm was raised after shocked workmen found what appeared to be a hand grenade in a property they were renovating.
Police rushed to the scene to cordon off the area, near Whitehills Primary School, and were followed shortly after by the Royal Logistic Corps Bomb Disposal team.
However, the grenade was soon found to be a training device that posed no explosive threat.
Disposal experts declared the item to be inert and confirmed that the scene was safe.
Kenny Holt (31), a painter with Hillcrest Housing, made the discovery and said it caused a few heart-in-mouth moments.
”It’s not exactly the kind of thing you come across every day,” said Kenny.
”I didn’t want to risk any injury to anyone so I showed it to the joiner and asked him what he thought.
”We both concluded that it certainly wasn’t a paperweight or anything like that.”
Although the device turned out to be a dummy grenade, used in military training exercises, Mr Holt and workmate, joiner Graeme Howe (32), feared it presented a real danger and said they believed their decision to phone the police was the right one.
Graeme said: ”Kenny brought it through to me and I wasn’t sure but it looked like a grenade after we thought about it.
”I got a bit of a fright, as you would.”
Kenny added: ”You don’t realise at the time what you have in your hand. It did look like a grenade but you don’t think you’re going to find one here.”
Afterwards the men were able to joke about the situation, even finding humour in the Bruno Mars pop song Grenade, to ease their nerves.
A spokesman said: ”Officers were called to the address in Stedfast Lane at about 11.25am after workmen found the object.
”The Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) were immediately alerted and on attendance confirmed initial indications that the object was a practice grenade.
”It was removed by EOD personnel and a precautionary cordon that had been in place around the immediate area was lifted.
”No one required to be evacuated during the incident.”