A D-Day museum had to be evacuated after a member of the public brought in a hand grenade as a ‘donation’.
A worried member of staff at the Castletown D-Day Center in Portland, Dorset, raised the alarm at midday on Wednesday after being presented with the device.
Police evacuated the building, along with neighboring properties, and erected a 50-metre cordon, causing a huge queue of trucks on their way to the port.
The Royal Navy’s explosive ordnance disposal team was called in to deal with the grenade.
Visitors were said to have been “filled with horror” as they hastily evacuated the building.
One local resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “I was just getting the kids back from their last day of school and, yeah, it’s not something you hear every day.”
“I do not believe”
Pete Roper, the mayor of Portland, expressed exasperation at the decision to surrender the grenade.
“I can’t understand the thought process. I don’t believe it,” he said.
“The grenade should have been left behind and the police should have been called as soon as it was discovered.”
He added that trucks traveling to the ferry port had to be diverted.
A spokesman for the museum said: “A British Second World War hand grenade was brought to the Castletown D-Day Center by a member of the public as a donation.
“To be sure, we immediately alerted the relevant authorities who took the safety precautions we witnessed earlier today before the grenade was safely taken away by the Royal Naval Explosive Ordnance Unit to be dealt with in a controlled manner way.
“Sometimes we receive donations of medals, uniforms and the like, but we always advise people to report potentially dangerous items to the police rather than bring them to us, even if they think the item is safe.”
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