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Pic: PhilHawkes/BNPS

Pictured: An example of the type of grenade Phil found.

A gardener received a shock when he picked up an unexploded World War Two hand grenade he did not realise was still live.

Phil Hawkes, 29, was strolling along Woodbury Common in Exmouth, Devon, when he spotted the mysterious object pointing out of the soil.

Thinking it was a harmless bomb fragment, he reached down and levered it out of the long grass with a stick, letting it drop into the palm of his left hand.

However, what he uncovered was actually a complete No 36 Mills grenade with its detonator still intact, whose fragments could fly 100ft.

Phil carefully placed the grenade, which would have been issued to the Home Guard, on the ground, backed away and called 999.