THE discovery of an 80-year-old grenade in a back garden led to the evacuation of houses on a North-East estate.

It was uncovered by the new occupants of a house in Ashgrove Avenue, Hartlepool.

When they found the device, they looked on the Internet and identified it as possibly being a grenade dating from the 1920s.

At 8.30am, police called in experts from the Army bomb disposal unit and created a road block at either end of Ashgrove Avenue.

Door-to-door evacuations were carried out on the street and houses that backed on to the garden where the grenade was found.

The bomb disposal experts removed the device and took it to a beach in Seaton, where it was destroyed in a controlled explosion.

Residents were allowed to return home at about 11.15am.

A police spokesman said: "The grenade was apparently of German origin, designed to be fired from a rifle.

"It was found as the new occupants of the house in Ashdown Avenue began to tidy their back garden. I gather it was in a bin containing cardboard bags and other rubbish, in the middle of a compost heap.

"Apparently, it could date back from the Second World War or even before.

"Fortunately, no one was injured during the operation."

Jill Stephenson, who was among those evacuated from the street, said: "The police had blocked off both ends of the street and they were knocking on everyone's doors on both sides of the road.

"I was stunned when I found out what was going on, but I didn't really think of myself as being in danger."

Retired postal manager, Dave Kitchen, 68, of nearby Windermere Road, said: "I'm not scared about it, but I have never come across this kind of thing before.

"I thought it must have been an incident in the street, like someone being knocked over or something."