Boy finds live First World War Mills bomb grenade on beach ‘capable of exploding’

Device was confirmed as live WW1 hand grenade by army technical officer

The boy made the discovery on beach in Northern Ireland (Police Ards and North Down Facebook)

A young boy discovered a live grenade from the First World War on a Northern Ireland beach that was “capable of exploding”.

After finding the unexploded grenade on Cultra beach in County Down, the young boy contacted the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

The device was confirmed as a live WW1 Mills Bomb hand grenade by an army technical officer who went to the scene to inspect it.

The grenade was then taken to Crawfordsburn Country Park where they detonated the grenade in a controlled explosion.

The device was confirmed as a live WW1 “Mills Bomb” hand grenade by an army technical officer who went to the scene to inspect it (Police Ards and North Down Facebook)

On the Police Ards and North Down Facebook page, officers said: “We contacted ATO who attended and confirmed it was an unexploded World War 1 “Mills Bomb” hand grenade.

“We accompanied ATO to Crawfordsburn Country Park where a controlled explosion was carried out.

“This was a live grenade that was capable of exploding.

“A big thank you to the young lad who found the grenade and alerted police and thanks to all involved.”

The Mills bomb grenade was the first hand grenade issued on a large scale in Britain when it was developed in 1915.

Though rare, unexploded bombs from WW1 and WW2 are still discovered from time to time.

In 2020, parts of Soho in central London were evacuated after a suspected unexploded Second World War bomb was found, while a 7ft German explosive was detonated off the coast of the Isle of Wight after being picked up by a fishing net in 2019.