AROUND 30 people were evacuated from their homes after a wooden training hand grenade sparked a bomb alert.

Police sealed off an area of 45 homes in Wynotham Street, off Briercliffe Road, Burnley, and called in Army bomb disposal experts after the grenade was discovered in one of the terrace homes.

The alert lasted more than three hours until Army officers declared the grenade safe and they took it away.

Police were alerted at 1.30pm yesterday by the woman tenant of the rented house in Wynotham Street. She was tidying up the house when she discovered the grenade and raised the alarm.

Inspector Andrew Procter, of Burnley police, said: "We went to look at the device and then called in the Army. "They found that it was a wooden grenade that used to be used by the Army for training purposes. There was no risk of explosion. These things are designed to look like the real thing and it did."

Inspector Procter said all the people evacuated from their homes managed to find somewhere to stay whilst the incident was dealt with.

One neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: "About ten minutes before the police arrived I noticed some people stood around outside the house and wondered what was going on.

"The police came and knocked on my door and asked me if I had anywhere I could go for a few hours. They said a grenade had been found in the house and they were sending for the bomb disposal team. I went and stayed with my sister in Harle Syke."

Residents were allowed back into their homes just after 4pm. It was not known how the grenade came to be in the house.