3 grenades found in QC

MANILA, Philippines - Three hand grenades have been found in different areas in Quezon City since Wednesday, an official said yesterday.

Inspector Noel Sublay, chief of the Quezon City Police District’s Explosives and Ordinance Division (QCPD-EOD), said the latest one was an M62 fragmentation grenade found by scavenger Dario Flores while rummaging through garbage along the riverbank in Barangay Katipunan at around 1:15 p.m. Friday.

An EOD team retrieved the grenade, the third recovered since Wednesday in Barangay Commonwealth and Barangay Imelda.

Sublay said workers found an MK2 fragmentation grenade in the Boy Junkshop in Barangay Commonwealth at around 1 p.m. The workers said they did not know how the grenade found its way to the shop.

Sublay said that the grenade can no longer be used since it had no filter, detonator and safety lever.

Two hours later, a live MK2 fragmentation grenade was found in the storage room of lawyer Esrael de Leon’s house in Barangay Imelda.

De Leon told police he was surprised to find the grenade in his house and immediately called authorities to have it removed.

Sublay said the recovered grenades were old models, manufactured in the 1970s and 1980s. Grenades are usually distributed to military personnel, who are not required to return them. Soldiers usually sell grenades at a price ranging from P200 up to P300, he added.