A child on an Easter egg hunt organized by a pre-school group in an English village stumbled upon an unexpected surprise -- a hand grenade.

The hunt was taking place in a field near the town of Holford, Somerset, on Saturday, This Is Somerset reported.

The area was cordoned off and the bomb disposal squad destroyed the grenade in a controlled explosion, police said. It also resulted in the closure of a highway for a few of hours.

"We were beginning to count up the eggs at the end of the hunt and I saw a boy of three standing on an object," Stuart Moffatt, who was attending the hunt with his three children, told the Daily Mail.

"It was brown and about four inches high. It looked like an Easter egg, but it was a hand grenade.

"I was shocked. The boy who was standing on it thought it was a rock. The leaders did a great job keeping the children calm."

The grenade was believed to have been a relic from World War II, according to the Mail.