THE chips were definitely down for workers at a frozen food factory when they found a hand grenade in a bag of potatoes.

The discovery was made by staff at McCain's headquarters in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.

But the tense situation was eased by an Army bomb disposal team from Catterick Garrison, which was called in to defuse the device.

Experts confirmed that the Second World War grenade posed little danger to workers because the detonator was missing.

Captain Ros Thom, of the bomb disposal team, said: "It was a Mills grenade and was used by the Home Guard in this country."

A spokesman for McCain said: "The grenade was found quickly and discovered before it reached the production line, thanks to our quality assurance checking procedure."

North Yorkshire Police said they had little involvement in the incident.

The device was taken away by Army personnel once it was found to be safe. It is understood to have been dug up from fields in the Scarborough area.

The potentially explosive delivery was the second to be reported in North Yorkshire during the past month.

Charity shop workers at the Richmond branch of Scope also discovered a hand grenade in one of their sacks of donations from the public.

The shop was evacuated and bomb disposal experts were called to examine the device, but it was later confirmed to be a replica.