A controlled explosion took place in the Harrogate area after a person found a hand grenade.

North Yorkshire Police revealed it was one of two suspected explosives found in Harrogate over the weekend.

The other, which was fished out of a river by an angler, turned out to be harmless.

Police were alerted to the hand grenade at 9.30pm on Friday night. The force said in a statement:

“A member of the public rang us having found a hand grenade in the Harrogate area. We attended immediately and were at the scene a few minutes later.

“A cordon and scene guard were put in place to keep everyone safe while we contacted our colleagues at explosive ordnance disposal.

“A farmer kindly allowed us to use his field, and explosive ordnance disposal attended and safely detonated the grenade in daylight hours the following day.”

The angler’s metal object, discovered on Sunday, turned out to be nothing fishy.

But North Yorkshire Police received reports of a third suspicious item by a man clearing a barn in Craven. This one required detonating.

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Police said in a statement:

“We dealt with three calls relating to suspected explosives unearthed over the weekend.

“The result: two of them were unexploded devices that needed to be detonated at a safe distance – the third was just a battered piece of metal.

“In all three incidents the finders did the right thing by contacting us.”

They advised anyone discovering suspicious looking items not to touch them, leave them alone and move at least 50 metres away before calling the police on 101.

“As we did over the weekend, we’ll assess what you’ve told us, and contact explosive ordnance disposal who can take any necessary action.”