World War I helmets, bayonets and bomb scare caused by grenade pulled from river by TikTok magnet fishermen

Two friends got more than they bargained for and sparked a bomb scare after pulling an unexploded grenade from a canal. The magnet fisherman immediately realised what they had 'caught' and called emergency crews who raced to the scene.

A police bomb squad were dispatched to Union Canal in Linlithgow, Scotland, where the grenade was found. The two friends had been recording some footage for their TikTok 'Magnet Fishing Edinburgh'.

The grenade was taken to a nearby field to be safely detonated by authorities. And this isn't the first big find for the pair, who have nearly half a million followers on TikTok. One of the pair, Bob, said: “We decided to switch location, because Edinburgh has been magnet-fished quite a lot. We usually fish from bridges, because that’s mainly where things get thrown from – so we started at the bridge and worked our way down.

“At first, we didn’t find anything, so we took a break to get food. Our second throwing was when we found the grenade and realised the situation we were in.

“Nerves started kicking in, but we were trying to keep confident and make sure that everyone was secure and safe. There were a couple of people walking past that we advised to walk around the other path.

“Once we got it, we ended up contacting the police and they got a bomb squat out to come and take care of it. The officer came over and told us, ‘we’ve got good news and bad news – the good news is you’ve saved Linlithgow, but the bad news is your magnet will be getting blown up with the grenade'.

“They ended up taking it out to a local field and blowing it up. 'They also took our magnet off us and blew that up too because it was too risky to take the grenade off the magnet.”

The pair have also found motorbikes, a Range Rover frame – and even WWI artefacts, including helmets and bayonets.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “We received a report that an explosive item had been recovered from the canal. EOD attended and a controlled explosion was carried out.”