Unexploded World War 2 grenade unearthed in Regent's Canal

• Police cordoned off a 100 metre radius of where it was found until the bomb squad came to take the device away
• It’s thought the grenade is likely to have been there since 1941, when London suffered major aerial attacks in The Blitz
• More volunteer clear-ups are planned to take place over the coming weeks further along the drained stretch of canal in east London

A 1km stretch of the Regent’s Canal in London has been completely drained of water ahead of our £45 million winter restoration programme, which launched this week. The canal has been drained between Johnson Lock and Limehouse Basin in east London to allow specialist brick-layers to repair large, 2-3ft-wide voids which have developed in the canal wall.

Debbie Vidler, volunteer coordinator with the Canal & River Trust, said: “We often find weird and wonderful things in the bottom of canals when we drain them. Today we discovered numerous shopping trolleys, bicycles, mobile phones and carrier bags, but we were not expecting to find a 70 year old unexploded bomb.

“It was a bit of a shock for the volunteer who came across it but we acted quickly to alert the emergency services and police arrived within minutes to make the area safe. We’re now looking forward to what else we may find with the next planned clean-ups at the site.”