A PHEASANT shoot almost went with a bang when one of the beaters started playing football with a live hand grenade from the Second World War.

The pineapple-style bomb was stuck in a lump of clay, which Paul Wallace, 30, had kicked idly as he walked his way across a field on the Londesborough Park Estate, near Pocklington.

Beaters and gamekeepers alike scattered as Mr Wallace picked up the object and scraped the mud off - exposing the hidden danger.

He said: "When I picked it up I realised straight away what it was - I couldn't believe it. I soon put it down again."

Mr Wallace's uncle, Andrew Moseby, who is head gamekeeper on the estate - used as a firing range by American troops in the Second World War - said: "At first Paul was kicking the object because it was covered in clay and looked like a ball - but then the mud came off and he realised what it was. Nobody believed him to start with, we thought he was joking - then we saw what it was he had kicked."

Mr Moseby added: "I wasn't too surprised, because I have worked on estates in Norfolk where a lot of similar items turned up."Paul wanted to take it home to put it on his mantelpiece until he was told how powerful those grenades are."

Former Royal Engineer Martin Hall was also on the shoot, and recognised the possible danger should the 50-year-old device explode.

"From my time in the Services I knew how dangerous these things can be," he said."I told the beater to put it down, and we all got well out of the way - nobody should take risks with explosives, old or new."

An army spokesman said: "This type of explosive can seriously injure or even kill anyone within a five-metre radius when they explode."

Bomb disposal experts from Catterick were called in by police, and the grenade was destroyed in a controlled explosion in the field.

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