A teenager was stunned to find a live Second World War grenade nestling in bushes near a disused railway line.

Ian Cwikla-Watson made the discovery on a former railway now used as a walkway and cycle path in Castlecroft, Wolverhampton.

Police warned residents to keep away for around three hours until an army bomb disposal team disarmed the grenade and took it away. Ian, aged 14, a Year 10 pupil at Ounsdale High School in Wombourne who lives in Radford Lane, Finchfield, said: “I spotted it in the bushes. I could see it was metal and saw the pin when I picked it up.

Ian then phoned his 19-year-old sister Jodie sister and her boyfriend Archie Gladwin before going to wait for them in Castlecroft Road, Castlecroft. Archie, a 20-year-old landscape gardener, from Aston Street, Penn Fields, said: “We brought it back to our house in the car. Two officers came and had a look. The next thing we knew the street was filled with police cars.”

The drama happened on Friday afternoon and the all-clear was given at around 7.30pm.