Grenade event in Estonia on Tue 6th August 2024

Bomb disposal experts recently had to deal with a suspicious item which turned out to be a World War Two era grenade found in a village in Pärnu County, local daily Pärnu Postimees reports.

The Lääne Eesti (western Estonia) bomb disposal team attended the scene, in the village of Reinumurru, Põhja-Pärnumaa Rural Municipality, to neutralize the ordnance, which turned out to be a German-made rifle grenade-type projectile.

Such a call out is fairly routine, the squad says: 152 explosives and 11 non-explosive devices have been found in Pärnu County alone this year. So far, plus over 3,600 cartridges and five detonators.

Team leader Aivar Post said of the latter items: "If someone hits one, the firing pin engages, and it detonates," noting that one person has been injured this year due to improper handling of explosives.

In this case, the rifle grenade, measuring 12-13 centimeters in length, had been unearthed in the course of gardening work and, while the call-out was routine, Post said mishandling the grenade, for instance inadvertently tossing it on to the bonfire, could potentially have had catastrophic consequences.

If you find any item which you suspect may be an unexploded piece of ordnance, call 112 immediately and under no circumstances handle the item.