A bomb disposal team was called to an beach after a schoolgirl found a suspected hand grenade.

The alarm was raised by nine-year-old Isobel Osborne following the chance discovery on Sheerness beach, off Marine Parade, just past the Isle Of Sheppey Sailing Club.

Isobel’s mum, Simone Cumming, said: “Not knowing what it was, she began rolling it under her feet.

“Luke, my partner, went over to see what she was looking at. He ushered Isobel away and called the police.”

Soon after, officers arrived and judged the heavily corroded artefact could be a live grenade, with the pin still attached.

They in turn called the bomb squad to come down and remove the item. The Coastguard also attended.

A police spokesman said officers were called just before 5pm to a report a potential wartime munitions device had been found.

He added: “Explosive Ordnance Disposal Teams from the Ministry of Defence were also notified, however their attendance was not required as the item was found to not be an unexploded munitions device.”

It turns out the item was, in fact, the end of a fishing rod.

Tim Judge, Coastguard station officer, said: “We confirmed this by the writing on the side of it, which was all covered in barnacles.

“After taking a closer look, we identified it after a Google search of the trade name.”

He added: “It did look suspiciously like a hand grenade.”

The Coastguard team had arrived at the beach before the bomb squad had got there – at which time the tide had come in and the item could no longer be seen. They went back early the following morning to dispose of it. It was placed in the bin.

Mr Judge said the procedure if anyone sees anything suspicious is to dial 999 and to ask for the Coastguard.

“We confirmed it wasn’t anything dangerous and just disposed of it in the bin,” Tim said.

“But, clearly, if it was an object we were suspicious of, we wouldn’t have touched it and we’d have got the bomb disposal team back in.”

He added: “If anybody sees anything suspicious, they should not touch it and they should call 999 immediately and ask for the Coastguard.”