Authorities discovered an unexploded grenade in a house in a district of Antwerp on Wednesday night.
The grenade was thrown into a house on Van Heystveltstraat in Deurne in the municipality of Antwerp earlier that evening.
“At around 1:00 AM we received a call that an explosive had been thrown into a home,” said Wouter Bruyns of the Antwerp police.
The Office for the Disposal and Destruction of Explosive Equipment (DOVO) was called to the scene.
“It was too dangerous to transport the grenade, so DOVO exploded it nearby,” Bruyns told VRT NWS.
Op een braakliggend terrein aan de Merksemsesteenweg brengt #DOVO een explosief gecontroleerd tot ontploffing. Het tuig veilig vervoeren is niet mogelijk. In de omgeving zal een luide knal waarneembaar zijn. pic.twitter.com/kmj7izgBko
— Politie Antwerpen (@PZAntwerpen) November 28, 2019
The controlled explosion took place just before 4:00 AM in a wasteland on the Merksemsesteenweg. The grenade was exploded within a container using sandbags.
The reason for the grenade ending up in the house in Deurne will be “part of the investigation conducted by the federal judicial police," Bruyns told Gazet Van Antwerpen.
Evie McCullough
The Brussels Times