A PENSIONER sparked a bomb scare with a 60-year-old hand grenade at the weekend

Shortly before 10am on Saturday, police received a report that the 82-year-old man, who has not been named, had a Second World War grenade at his home in Clifford Terrace, Crawcrook, Gateshead. He had stored it in an outhouse.

The Army bomb disposal squad was called and its officers found a white, corrosive substance leaking from the grenade. They took it to a nearby quarry, where it was safely detonated.

A police spokesman said: "We believe the man had owned the grenade for a number of years. It was impossible to tell how stable or unstable it would have become."