A SECOND World War grenade was detonated on Berrow beach after a Burnham-on-Sea couple found it in their back garden.

Elizabeth Blake and her husband, Adrian, were digging up their back garden at the weekend when they discovered the grenade along with 22 M42 amour piercing rounds and a toy gun.

"It was a real surprise for us," Elizabeth said.

"We are digging up the garden as we are planning on putting a new shed in and have to dig quite far down.

"My husband found a few bits but we didn't think much of it but when we dug down further we found more and more pieces.

"Initially I thought the grenade was just a big ball of dirt but when I washed it I realised what it was.

"It's amazing that these bits were in our garden, we really didn't expect to find them.

"It's not every day that you find something like this in your back garden."

Elizabeth said Adrian went to Burnham Police station to report their find on Monday (August 20) and bomb disposal experts took the grenade to Berrow beach and detonated it at 3pm.

A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police, said: "We were called by a member of the public to an address in Berrow following the discovery of a hand grenade believed to be from WW2.

"The Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team was in attendance to carry out a controlled explosion."

A spokesman for Sedgemoor District Council, who owns Berrow beach, said they worked with bomb disposal experts to ensure residents were safe when the bomb was detonated.

A council spokesman, said: "We were on standby to set up a rest centre if houses needed to be evacuated.

"We also supplied 100 sand bags at the request of the bomb disposal team.

"We supplied some cones to barrier off the area that the police and bomb disposal squad said they needed."

Elizabeth said she is glad the issue is now resolved and is looking forward to getting her garden ready for her new shed.

"Sadly I didn't see the grenade being detonated but I hear it is quite spectacular," Elizabeth said.

"We don't know if there are any more bits hidden in our garden but we are going to continue to dig to get the garden ready for our new shed and find out."