A family holiday in Monmouth could so easily have ended in tragedy after a teenage boy found a hand grenade on the banks of the River Monnow.
And the family, together with shoppers in a Monmouth supermarket and police officers, are hailing a local policeman as a hero after he took the grenade from the store, not knowing whether it was active or not.
Pc Dave Walters, who is stationed in Monmouth, outlined to The Beacon how the drama had unfolded.
"The family, who are from Kent, were staying in the Monmouth area and had come into the town" he said.
The mother went into the Somerfield store to do some shopping, while her thirteen year old son went for a walk by the banks of the River Monnow.
"Amazingly, a short time later, the boy walked into the store, carrying what appeared to his mother to be a hand grenade" said the officer.
The police were immediately called and Pc Walters was quickly on the scene. "When I got to the store, the boy and his mother were sat at the back of the checkout" he said.
"The boy was holding the hand grenade and was switching it from hand to hand, as though it was a cricket ball".
The boy told the officer where he found the device and Pc Walters immediately grabbed it from him and ran with the grenade to the river bank, where he disposed of it.
Army Bomb Disposal experts from Tewkesbury were called and were on the scene within an hour.