A BRAVE policeman risked his life in Monmouth last week by carrying a Second World War grenade away from a crowded supermarket.
PC Dave Walters was on patrol in Monmouth when he was called to Somerfield last Thursday at 5.45pm.
He said: "I walked into the store and the staff on the checkout motioned me over to a stunned-looking woman and her son.
"I looked at the lad who was about 13 and he had what I recognised as a grenade in his hands – he was rolling it from hand to hand almost like a tennis ball.
"The mother was in a state of panic and there were a lot of other people in the shop, so I took it out of the boy's hand and asked him to show me where he found it."
PC Walters carried the grenade back to the banks of the River Monnow and replaced it so the area could be cordoned off from the public. The boy and his mother were on holiday from Kent and the mother is said to be very grateful for PC Walters' quick action.
Within an hour the army arrived from Tewkesbury to disarm the grenade.
It was probably left behind from the Second World War and did not have a fuse for detonation, they said.
During the war, members of the Home Guard were issued with grenades which contained explosives, but no fuses.
In the event of a German invasion, they would have been instructed to take the weapons to the local armoury to have fuses fitted.
The army said the grenade had probably been floating harmlessly in the river for decades.
PC Walters added: "I have been in the police force for eight years and this is the first incident of this nature I have experienced!"
Sgt Chris O'Driscoll, who was in charge of operations on the day, said: "PC Walters assessed the situation in the supermarket and saw that there was not time to evacuate all the shoppers, so he took it back to the river himself. It is great that there was a happy ending to this story.
"Our main aim is to keep people safe and make sure that they feel safe and to perform that duty to the maximum."