PART of a busy town centre was brought to a standstill for more than an hour yesterday when a man walked into a shop carrying a hand grenade.

Roads and businesses in Guisborough, east Cleveland, were closed by police, and shop assistants told to keep back from windows, while bomb squad experts examined the grenade.

The chaos started after a man, thought to be in his thirties, who had been at a house-clearance in Skelton, walked into Buckshees Military Shop, in Chaloner Street, and put the device on the counter.

Mark Carroll, co-owner of the shop, said: "He just plonked it on the desk and asked if it was safe and I immediately said it wasn't.

"I told him to take it out of the shop and to the rugby pitch down the road and phone the police.

"He came back here a while afterwards and said he had met some police in the car park and given it to the first policeman he found.

"I then bought some old Army stuff from him and he left."

Mr Carroll, who has just come out of the Armed Forces, said he thought the grenade was from the Second World War.

Meanwhile, shops in the area near Rectory Lane were closed until the device, which was later found to have no detonator inside, was examined by Army experts.

Witnesses said people were concerned it was a bomb scare.

A shop assistant from Stokelds, in Fountain Street, said: "People were worried. We were told by police to clear the shop and stay inside away from the windows.

"We thought it was a bit strange. You do not expect anything like that to happen in Guisborough."

Inspector Mark Thornton, of Langbaurgh police, said: "At about 12.05pm, a member of the public alerted the police to what he believed to be a hand grenade on the grass verge of Rectory Lane by the toilets.

"The area was cordoned off and we called out the Army from Catterick, who recovered the device and made it safe.

"No one was in any danger, but it was fortunate police were nearby at the time."