A German grenade believed to be a souvenir from the first world war prompted police to lock down a section of Perth on Tuesday morning after it was fished out of the Swan river.

A Western Australia police spokeswoman, Susan Usher, said a man hooked the 100-year-old grenade while fishing off the Applecross jetty at 2am.



He alerted police who cordoned off the area. The 30cm-long device was later identified by Australian navy experts as a first world war Granatenwerfer grenade, also known as a pineapple bomb.

The Australian War Memorial says the Granatenwerfer was a grenade launcher adopted by the Germans in 1916. It has a range of about 300m.



Naval officers took the grenade away and disposed of it.



Geoff Smith, from the Western Australian Arms and Armament Society, said the grenade was likely to be an illegal war souvenir brought back by an Australian soldier. “It has to have been brought back by someone and then dumped. It’s the only way it could have got there,” Smith said.

Usher said the grenade did not have a fuse.

She said: “This is a timely reminder that ammunition which has been fired, but has not gone off, is particularly dangerous as all the normal safety arrangements have been overcome.”

“Very little handling may be needed to make the item of ammunition go off.”

Usher said anyone finding unexploded ordnance should not touch it.

“It has been there for many years, it won’t hurt you if you don’t disturb it,” she said. “Contact police and they will arrange for military experts to attend and dispose of it.”