AN UNEXPLODED World War Two grenade discovered at Wroughton Airfield Solar Park has now been dealt with.

The hand grenade was uncovered at around 3.45pm yesterday during land surveys at the airfield ahead of the construction of the new solar park, which was given the go-ahead in March this year.

Yesterday, the Royal Logistics Corps' Bomb Disposal unit attended the airfield to safely detonate the explosive.

The area had been cordoned off before it was reported to police on Thursday afternoon.

John Spouge, an HGV driver for Luckes and Sons Removals, arrived at work for 8am today to discover the site had been closed off.

"Luckes and Sons rents one of the hangars and that's where we keep all the vehicles. If the grenade goes off in the hangar it will blow it all up," he said.

"When I got up here this morning I went to sign in at Red Barn Gate House as usual they said we couldn't go in because of an unexploded grenade, they'd found it on the airfield.

"They said they were waiting for the bomb squad to turn up.

"We thought 'wow that's exciting'. It's certainly not what you expect when you turn up to work on a wet and windy day.

"They made us park on the side near the hangar and that's where we've been waiting since."

Matt Moore, head of site at Wroughton Site, Science Museum Group, said they had found the grenade while surveying the land as part of construction for the Solar Park, a joint venture between Public Power Solutions (PPS), owned by Swindon Borough Council, and the Science Museum Group, which owns the site.

He said: "We were a World War Two Airfield and as a result we are cautious whenever there is construction on the Airfield to look out for things like these.

"As part of work to build the Solar Park they carried out a hazards survey and on this occasion when the land was surveyed they found a small hand grenade from World War Two.

"It was discovered in the middle of a field so it is safe but we cordoned off the site in order to make sure there was no threat to staff and workers at the airfield."

The discovery was reported to police at around 4.30pm on Thursday, who in turn reported it to the Army.

A Wiltshire Police spokesman said: "Police received a call at 16.25 yesterday to Wroughton Airfield to reports of a suspected unexploded World War Two hand grenade.

"Officers attended but because it was found to be in a secure location the matter was decided to be handed over to the bomb disposal unit, which we understand has attended this morning."

The grenade was detonated after Wiltshire Police granted the bomb squad permission to carry out the operation on civilian land.

An army spokesman said: "The bomb disposal unit attended Wroughton Airfield this morning. The hand grenade was detonated on location at around 10.30am."