Unexploded grenade in the Limmat, bomb disposal team at Unterer Letten

Bathers found an unexploded hand grenade in the Limmat at the Unterer Letten public baths, in the centre of Zurich. The device was lying about a metre from the bank.

It is a grenade manufactured in the former Yugoslavia and was found to be still live. City police closed the area and called in divers. Recovery was handled by specialists from the Swiss army's Kamir command, the unit responsible for mine clearance and explosive ordnance disposal.

The device was lifted out shortly after 15.30 and loaded onto a special vehicle to be taken to a site where it will be destroyed under controlled conditions. The baths lie where the Sihl joins the Limmat, a few hundred metres from the main railway station.

Not an isolated case

Finding munitions in Swiss rivers and lakes is less rare than one might think. At the end of July a tourist reported a device in Lake Maggiore, in front of the Peace Park in Locarno.

The reasons vary. Some of the material comes from improper disposal of wartime residue, some from weapons brought in illegally and then dumped in water. Yugoslav-made grenades that circulated in Europe during the wars of the 1990s reappear periodically in seizures and finds.

This summer's low water levels have exposed objects that normally stay covered even in August. It is the same reason wrecks, remains of submerged structures and bulky waste have resurfaced in several Swiss and Italian bodies of water in recent months. The advice from the authorities in such cases never changes: touch nothing and call the police.