by Anna Roberts

Shoppers were evacuated from a car boot sale after a seller attempted to flog potentially deadly hand grenades.

It is believed the seller, who had found the hand grenades while metal detecting, did not realise his products could be lethal.

Police and bomb squad officers quickly ushered shoppers out of the boot sale in Forstal Road, Aylesford, on Sunday and set up a 50m cordon.

The grenades, including some which could still have been active, were destroyed in controlled explosions in nearby Aylesford quarry.

Leigh Norris, who organises the weekly sale, said he was relieved everything was okay.

The 37-year-old, of Wouldham, said: “It was a misunderstanding.

"The man who attempted to sell the grenades did not realise what he was doing and was quite sorrowful.”

Mr Norris explained how early in the morning he visited every boot and checked there was nothing wrong with the products.

He recalled visiting the stall with hand grenades. He examined a gun which he saw was legal and blank and also looked at army memorabilia.

He did not realise the man, who lived in France but was not French, planned to also sell hand grenades.

But someone alerted the police and they arrived at about 11.30am.

He continued: “They said three of the hand grenades could have been live and they took them away in a box.

“They had obviously come with him all the way from France and were rattling around in the boot of the car.

“It was not that they were definitely dangerous, just that they could have been.”

Brian Eddy, of Unwin Close, Aylesford, heard the controlled explosions.

He said: “There was a tremendous explosion, shaking the air. People left their houses to find what it was and where.”

Were you at the boot sale? E-mailmultimediadesk@thekmgroup.co.ukto tell us all about it.