Children find WW II grenade

Police warn that treat any military ordinance should be treated as being live and potentially lethal. Photo / Thinkstock

A WW II Grenade has been detonated in Waikato after being found by children yesterday.

Police were alerted to the children's find, at a residential house site near Ngaruawahia, around 3.15pm yesterday.

The potential for a tragic outcome was high, Hamilton police Senior Sergeant Andrew O'Reilly said.

Defence Force staff were dispatched from Auckland and subsequently detonated the grenade on farmland.

The area where the device was located is part of the old Ngaruawahia Military ranges from the 1940s.

The need to treat any military ordinance as being live and potentially lethal could not be overestimated, Mr O'Reilly said.

Anyone who made a similar discovery were advised not to handle the device until it had been made safe by Defence Force personnel.

"If you find anything such as grenades and ordinance call police immediately and move people and animals out off the area."