Council offices reopen after grenade detonated

A member of the public took a grenade into the council offices on Tuesday afternoon

Tewkesbury Borough Council has reopened its offices after bomb experts safely detonated a grenade handed into their offices by a member of the public.

The council temporarily closed its offices and evacuated staff from the building, after receiving the grenade.

The weapon was presented to workers at Tewkesbury Borough Council by a member of the public who found it while metal detecting.

Gloucestershire Constabulary put up a cordon around the building at 14:10 GMT on Tuesday afternoon.

The Explosive Ordnance Disposal team safely detonated the grenade at 16:45 GMT on Tuesday afternoon and their offices were reopened shortly after.

A spokesperson for the council said: "Yesterday afternoon, a member of the public handed in a grenade to our council offices that they discovered while metal detecting.

"We evacuated the building as a precaution, and officers continued to work remotely ensuring that all council services remained operational.

"We worked with Gloucestershire Constabulary who dealt with the device, and the offices have reopened as normal today."

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “We can confirm an Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team was called out to The Vineyards, Tewkesbury at the request of Gloucestershire Police.

“A team from 11EOD&S Regiment responded to the call-out in question. An item of ordnance was taken away and subsequently disposed of in a safe manner.”