AN ex-forces veteran found a military-style smoke grenade on a wall in North Scale, Walney. 

Alan Williamson found the grenade when he went out on his morning walk on Tuesday, October 10.

He moved the grenade away to the empty part of a large car park and then called the police. The ex-artillery veteran said he knew what he was looking at and that if the police had been told by another member of the public that they had found a grenade on the wall 'they would have shut North Scale down.' 

The police confirmed that they had a report of a smoke grenade at 8.35am on October 10. Officers attended and the item was inactive.

Mr Williamson thought that it had been found on the beach by another member of the public before being put on a wall when they changed their mind about taking it home. A photo of the grenade shows what appears to be salt corrosion at the top near the pin. 

Mr Williamson said: "God knows why it was on the beach. It's obviously been on the tide for God knows how long. Those grenades have been around since the 80s. 

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"They fill the area with smoke, which clears in five minutes."

He said that both the military and specialist police teams use smoke grenades to breach an area. 

"If the police got a message they found a grenade they would have shut North Scale down," he said. "If you find anything like that anything that you don't know what it is, especially any kind of shells, you call the police or the coastguard." 

It is not the first item of interest that Mr Williamson has found in the area.

In the past, he has found phosphorus which he described as 'not a very nice substance at all,' and 50 pounds of plastic explosive. However he said it was unusual for artillery to end up in the Walney Channel.