Inside the Bomb Squad (2020): Season 1, Episode 1 - Episode #1.1 - full transcript
The experts race against time to deactivate a grenade that has been discarded in a bin near a gas main on an industrial estate. And they find a hoard of military munitions in a Manchester tower block.
Up and down the country,
behind closed doors...
It's a bomb waiting to go off,
this place.
...on ordinary streets...
It's an improvised explosive device.
...people are making deadly bombs
and explosives.
The Army's 11 EOD & Search Regiment,
better known as the bomb squad,
is called out
more than 2,000 times a year.
For the first time in the UK,
we're allowed to go with them...
You are always worried,
you never know what
you're going to come across next.
...as they investigate
Britain's hidden bomb factories...
There is no limit to an IED,
it's only down to
the bomb-maker's imagination.
...and take deadly explosives
off our streets.
It was almost like the ammunition
Rambo would take into war, really.
We'll follow the people
inside the bomb suits...
There is that balance
between adrenaline and fear.
You're trained to handle it.
...and with revolutionary
BSD-degree cameras...
...get closer to the action
than ever before...
It's exciting.
It is quite addictive, really,
that's why I love it.
...as we find out what it takes
to keep Britain safe.
The bomb squad has rapid response
units based all over the country.
This series, we join the squadrons
from Chester and Northolt.
This time, in a tower block
in Greater Manchester,
the discovery of an illegal hoard
of ammunition and explosives
putting the residents at risk.
The worst-case scenario is
a member of the public is injured.
In Lancashire, there's a threat
in the woods after dark...
The item was in a dangerous state.
...and a grenade in an oil drum on an
industrial estate in Buckinghamshire
becomes a major incident.
A suspected bomb has been found
by a dog walker.
Sergeant Alex Hughes,
known as Swansea,
and his number two,
Corporal Tony Newton,
are from Chester Troop.
It's too dangerous for anyone but
Swansea to approach the explosive.
Happy?
So he's been fitted with
a 360-degree camera
so that we can see what he sees,
and how he reacts.
All right,
I'll be about ten minutes, Tony.
Swansea's been in the bomb squad
for ten years.
He's one of the most experienced
operatives in the regiment.
I've finished up work,
I've gone home,
almost relaxing, you know,
I'd take my uniform off,
I'd settle down hoping that
was going to be it for the night.
But then, you know,
the phone does ring,
it's straight back into uniform
and back into work.
A police officer leads Swansea
to within 50 metres
of the suspect device.
You're just sort of going through
what you've been taught.
However, without
sort of seeing that scenario,
there's not really a lot
you can do.
Actually seeing it
is a completely different thing.
Swansea's first task
is to determine
the level of risk
from the explosive.
You're just gathering your thoughts,
thinking through
your threat assessment.
However, there is that balance
between adrenaline
and fear sort of going on.
But, yeah, you're sort of
trained to handle it.
Bomb squad operators
are taught to identify
hundreds of different types
of munitions.
The reason I was moving
small amounts of mud off there,
I was trying to see if there were
any confirmation markings
that I could see
just to identify that ammunition.
Once Swansea scrapes away
some of the dirt,
from the markings
stamped on one end,
he can tell
it's a World War ll munition.
The item was a shell that was still
attached to its cartridge case.
The cartridge case had been struck,
therefore the item was what we call
a blind and in a dangerous state.
The unexploded shell
may still be full of propellant.
When activated,
it releases explosive gases
creating a flash fire
able to cause significant injury
or even death to anyone nearby.
The isolated location of this device
means it's only Swansea
who's at risk.
But when a terrorist bomb
goes off in a public place,
dozens of people can be
killed or injured...
...as Swansea knows only too well.
SIRENS
On 22 May 2017, Swansea was called
out when a shrapnel-laden bomb
was detonated
at Manchester Arena.
23 people were killed,
and of the wounded,
more than half were children.
All we knew when we had
the phone call was,
"There's been an explosion -
we're not sure of the cause"
but that was enough to sort of
get us out of the door.
Whilst we were en route, we found
out it was a terrorist event.
I was BLEEP myself.
As soon as I arrived,
you have to be professional,
so as soon as I started doing it,
I was fine.
Ambulance and Fire Service
weren't entering that scene
until we had gone in
and said it was explosively clear.
So when we entered the scene,
we were still surrounded by members
of the public that had obviously
been up close and personal
to that device, unfortunately.
It felt completely different to
how it would feel in Afghanistan.
What we were dealing with
was on our doorstep
and I think that sort of was a
slightly different sort of scenario.
Back in the woods outside Clitheroe,
the World War ll shell
still poses a risk to the public.
Swansea's course of action is clear.
It's going to need to be demmed.
Which doesn't leave us
too many options, to be honest.
It can't be done at night-time.
So it will have to be a...
Keep it there...
...keep it there until
tomorrow morning job.
Bombs can't be demolished,
or demmed, at night
because it's too difficult
to enforce a cordon
to keep the public away.
The police must watch over
the shell until morning.
Now it's been disturbed,
the fear is someone else may
come into contact with the device
before the bomb squad
can return at first light.
RAF Northolt is London's only
military airfield inside the M25.
It's also the HQ for
the bomb squad's Northolt Squadron.
Sergeant Sam Jones has served here
for the past two years,
and today is the number one on duty
when an urgent call
comes in from the police.
Sam has been in the Army
for ten years.
He spent six months on bomb disposal
in Helmand Province in Afghanistan.
There are people like myself
who are pretty much
sitting around,
waiting for a phone to go.
And we'll always respond,
we'll never, ever think,
"Oh, that was a waste of time,"
because that's what we do.
The bomb squad's workload
is even heavier than usual
because of a spike in call-outs
caused by a new
and dangerous hobby -
magnet fishing.
Oh, my God! It's a bomb.
We're trying to figure out whether
this is a cannonball or a grenade.
Magnet fishing
is growing in popularity.
Mum?
Pull, pull, pull.
BLEEP! BLEEP!
And their aim, I think,
is treasure hunting.
Oh, that is absolutely brilliant.
Whoo! You'd better watch that.
Invariably, they will be in
their car, driving on public roads.
That's not helpful.
A magnet fishermen
has found a hand grenade
and driven with it to work, where
it's been reported to the police.
The situation has become critical.
With a gas main nearby,
if the grenade explodes,
it could rupture it,
with catastrophic results.
Sam and his number two,
Corporal Blake Cookson,
are fighting their way
through rush-hour traffic.
We are en route.
We're currently... basically
sort of swimming through concrete.
You'd think they'd be able to
see you in this big white truck.
With daylight fading,
it's become a race against time.
From the Chester unit,
Sergeant Steve Cockburn
and Corporal Carl McDonald
have been called
to the police station in Bolton,
where a man has been
taken into custody.
Staff Sergeant Steve Cockburn
was a policeman
before he joined the army at 23.
He passed his bomb squad exams
with a score of 98.9%.
This gentleman was arrested
at his place of work.
I think they'd conducted
a search of his locker
and found some ammunition items
there.
Amongst the items
is a suspected grenade.
Until the bomb squad
has assessed the haul,
the police have emptied
the car park.
There was a lot of
shotgun cartridges.
Some pyrotechnics there as well,
and quite a lot of
small arms ammunition.
It was almost like...
...the ammunition that Rambo
would take into war, really.
It's an offence to keep Army
munitions without certification.
Shamoolis or paralumiers
are powerful rocket flares
used to light up
the battlefield.
But making the grenade safe
is Steve's top priority.
I rendered the grenade safe
by removing the fuse
and then made an assessment
of the rest of the ammunition.
The suspect is still in custody.
So later that day,
the police search his flat
and find even more explosives.
They need Steve and Carl
to make the tower block safe.
It's an active crime scene,
and too dangerous
for our camera crew to enter.
Swansea must move the World War ll
shell before he can destroy it.
It's always exciting to deal
with something that is a threat.
The bomb squad are searching a flat
where suspected explosives
have been found.
The flat's owner was arrested
earlier in the day
when it was found he
was storing ammunition,
including a grenade,
in his locker at work.
Yeah.
There was evidence there for
the gentleman
attempting maybe to make
his own small arms ammunition.
Steve and Carl have discovered
a stash of illegal ammunition,
gunpowder and military flares.
They need to remove it before
they can be certain
all the residents in
the tower block are now safe.
There can't be any doubt that
that thing is safe.
The worst-case scenario is that
you declare a scene safe
and then a member of the public
is injured.
The role that we provide
is hugely important.
Now the police must find out
why a flat
was packed with explosives.
But a potential terrorist incident
has been avoided.
When a terrorist's house
is raided...
BANG
...the police and the bomb squad
can be targets themselves
if a property has been
deliberately booby-trapped.
So, which building is the...
Did you get the eyes on?
Eyes on... Specifically, where did
you walk up to?
How close did you get to
the buildings? And so on.
So that block of Semtex
is in there. Yeah.
Britain's bomb disposal elite
are recruited from the army,
navy and air force.
That window that was looked through,
was that glass or was it open?
It was open. So...
It's, like, got a shutter.
Already experienced soldiers,
those selected spend 11 weeks
with the Defence EOD Munitions
and Search Training Regiment,
or DEMS for short.
This £100 million training base
in Bicester...
...has been designed to
allow soldiers
to practise disposal techniques.
Today, the trainees are learning
how to enter a house
which might have concealed
booby-trap bombs.
Second Lieutenant Richard Kerr
is the number one.
He must go in first and defuse
any devices.
I'm not gonna go through
the front door.
I'm gonna try and find another
route in,
but I can't assume it's safe
up to that device,
because there might be
secondary devices
or hazards that are targeting me.
Someone's kitchen can be
a bomb-making factory.
There's no limit to an IED.
It's only down to
the bomb maker's imagination
and what he can get hold of.
They could booby-trap themselves.
They could booby-trap
the bomb-making factory.
We have a procedure to searching.
It's a very slow
and laborious process,
but it needs to be thorough
to ensure we stay alive.
But the first thing we'll do is
a visual check.
Ideally, we'll use a light or do
a visual grid sweep of the area.
So, I'm creating a path from
my point of entry to the device.
Staying inside the lines
could save his life.
If I've been searching and
zigzagging through the whole house,
I don't wanna forget what's safe
and what's not.
Obviously, if I become incapacitated
for some reason
and someone else needs to come in
behind me,
then they've got a safe route.
But even in that environment,
it takes a very long time to move
30cm forward.
There's a piece of plastic
explosive on the banister.
The trigger is wired
to the door handle.
Open the door and
the bomb detonates.
Yeah, so I'm happy that that end
is tied off onto that handle
and then onto the coil, the other
end, is on the tension release.
TICKING
BANG
A perfectly executed
training exercise.
In the real world,
bomb squad training
is put to the test time and again.
There are an estimated 21,000 sites
across Britain
where it's thought there may still
be unexploded World War ll bombs.
In woodland near Clitheroe...
...Swansea is at one of them.
He's heading back to the spot
where a live shell was found
the previous day.
Carrying two pounds of explosives,
it was designed to knock out tanks.
Two-pounders contain
explosive propellants
to fire the solid shot projectile
more than half a mile
in less than a second.
After 70 years in the ground,
it could be extremely volatile.
The only way to make the bomb safe
is to blow it up.
The gradient that bank was meant
that we couldn't surround it
in a sandbag wall and ensure that
no fragmentation of blast left.
Swansea's only option is to move it
to another location
to be destroyed.
It must be handled
with extreme care.
Police have cordoned off
a large field.
The next stage of
this precarious operation
is to set explosives
to destroy the shell.
As soon as we start preparing
the explosives,
there is an inherent risk.
The main drama for us is
the detonators.
They contain a primary explosive
which is fairly sensitive.
We have to handle those
very carefully.
Swansea must then retreat
100 metres...
...so Tony, his number two,
can safely trigger the demolition.
Are you happy? Yeah. Yeah?
Yeah, yeah.
Stand by!
Firing!
In Marlow, Buckinghamshire,
Sam from Northolt Troop
has finally arrived
at what is now a major incident.
A magnet fisherman found a
hand grenade and brought it to work.
Fearing an explosion could rupture
a nearby gas main,
emergency services have cordoned off
the area.
One of the police officers
came in and said,
"We need everyone away from the
windows, just in case it goes off."
And they told me that basically
someone fished it up
and then started driving round
with it in their car.
Yeah.
OK.
OK.
That's OK.
Brilliant.
I'll go and have a look.
It's the job of the bomb squad
to head towards danger.
So, I have an X-ray generator
and two small plates,
a roll of tape and
an assortment of gloves.
The grenade has been placed
in an oil drum
in an attempt to contain any blast.
It's rusted up.
To examine it properly,
Sam must pick it up.
So...
Every piece of ammunition
the army uses,
we are experts in.
But I know everything about
that hand grenade
and I could see that it had
a fly-off lever and a pin.
With them present,
I'm more interested to see what's
going on inside.
The crucial part of the bomb
squad's kit is their portable X-ray.
It's often the only way to tell
whether a device
still contains explosives.
That's the top of the grenade,
that's usually where you
put the pin in.
What we're trying to ascertain here
is you can see fragmentation lines
inside the shell
and I'm trying to see if this
middle channel is solid or not,
which usually indicates
the present of a detonator.
There seems to be components
in there,
so we're going to destroy
by demolition.
Next morning in a nearby field...
...the grenade is about
to be blown up.
And while the police keep the
curious public at a safe distance...
...Sam rigs 100g of plastic
explosives to the grenade.
He places it in a hole.
And it's then covered with sandbags.
Everyone must then retreat
100 metres
so the grenade can be blown up.
Quiet. Stand by.
A potentially catastrophic
incident has been avoided
thanks to the bomb squad.
Next time, in Liverpool...
...deadly explosives...
I've found similar-shaped
items like that
that have been home-made
by criminal gangs.
...the battle over a bomb
in the bedroom...
He doesn't want you taking it.
No.
...and in the seaside resort
of Llandudno...
Can I get you back about another
15 metres?
...there's an explosive discovery.
behind closed doors...
It's a bomb waiting to go off,
this place.
...on ordinary streets...
It's an improvised explosive device.
...people are making deadly bombs
and explosives.
The Army's 11 EOD & Search Regiment,
better known as the bomb squad,
is called out
more than 2,000 times a year.
For the first time in the UK,
we're allowed to go with them...
You are always worried,
you never know what
you're going to come across next.
...as they investigate
Britain's hidden bomb factories...
There is no limit to an IED,
it's only down to
the bomb-maker's imagination.
...and take deadly explosives
off our streets.
It was almost like the ammunition
Rambo would take into war, really.
We'll follow the people
inside the bomb suits...
There is that balance
between adrenaline and fear.
You're trained to handle it.
...and with revolutionary
BSD-degree cameras...
...get closer to the action
than ever before...
It's exciting.
It is quite addictive, really,
that's why I love it.
...as we find out what it takes
to keep Britain safe.
The bomb squad has rapid response
units based all over the country.
This series, we join the squadrons
from Chester and Northolt.
This time, in a tower block
in Greater Manchester,
the discovery of an illegal hoard
of ammunition and explosives
putting the residents at risk.
The worst-case scenario is
a member of the public is injured.
In Lancashire, there's a threat
in the woods after dark...
The item was in a dangerous state.
...and a grenade in an oil drum on an
industrial estate in Buckinghamshire
becomes a major incident.
A suspected bomb has been found
by a dog walker.
Sergeant Alex Hughes,
known as Swansea,
and his number two,
Corporal Tony Newton,
are from Chester Troop.
It's too dangerous for anyone but
Swansea to approach the explosive.
Happy?
So he's been fitted with
a 360-degree camera
so that we can see what he sees,
and how he reacts.
All right,
I'll be about ten minutes, Tony.
Swansea's been in the bomb squad
for ten years.
He's one of the most experienced
operatives in the regiment.
I've finished up work,
I've gone home,
almost relaxing, you know,
I'd take my uniform off,
I'd settle down hoping that
was going to be it for the night.
But then, you know,
the phone does ring,
it's straight back into uniform
and back into work.
A police officer leads Swansea
to within 50 metres
of the suspect device.
You're just sort of going through
what you've been taught.
However, without
sort of seeing that scenario,
there's not really a lot
you can do.
Actually seeing it
is a completely different thing.
Swansea's first task
is to determine
the level of risk
from the explosive.
You're just gathering your thoughts,
thinking through
your threat assessment.
However, there is that balance
between adrenaline
and fear sort of going on.
But, yeah, you're sort of
trained to handle it.
Bomb squad operators
are taught to identify
hundreds of different types
of munitions.
The reason I was moving
small amounts of mud off there,
I was trying to see if there were
any confirmation markings
that I could see
just to identify that ammunition.
Once Swansea scrapes away
some of the dirt,
from the markings
stamped on one end,
he can tell
it's a World War ll munition.
The item was a shell that was still
attached to its cartridge case.
The cartridge case had been struck,
therefore the item was what we call
a blind and in a dangerous state.
The unexploded shell
may still be full of propellant.
When activated,
it releases explosive gases
creating a flash fire
able to cause significant injury
or even death to anyone nearby.
The isolated location of this device
means it's only Swansea
who's at risk.
But when a terrorist bomb
goes off in a public place,
dozens of people can be
killed or injured...
...as Swansea knows only too well.
SIRENS
On 22 May 2017, Swansea was called
out when a shrapnel-laden bomb
was detonated
at Manchester Arena.
23 people were killed,
and of the wounded,
more than half were children.
All we knew when we had
the phone call was,
"There's been an explosion -
we're not sure of the cause"
but that was enough to sort of
get us out of the door.
Whilst we were en route, we found
out it was a terrorist event.
I was BLEEP myself.
As soon as I arrived,
you have to be professional,
so as soon as I started doing it,
I was fine.
Ambulance and Fire Service
weren't entering that scene
until we had gone in
and said it was explosively clear.
So when we entered the scene,
we were still surrounded by members
of the public that had obviously
been up close and personal
to that device, unfortunately.
It felt completely different to
how it would feel in Afghanistan.
What we were dealing with
was on our doorstep
and I think that sort of was a
slightly different sort of scenario.
Back in the woods outside Clitheroe,
the World War ll shell
still poses a risk to the public.
Swansea's course of action is clear.
It's going to need to be demmed.
Which doesn't leave us
too many options, to be honest.
It can't be done at night-time.
So it will have to be a...
Keep it there...
...keep it there until
tomorrow morning job.
Bombs can't be demolished,
or demmed, at night
because it's too difficult
to enforce a cordon
to keep the public away.
The police must watch over
the shell until morning.
Now it's been disturbed,
the fear is someone else may
come into contact with the device
before the bomb squad
can return at first light.
RAF Northolt is London's only
military airfield inside the M25.
It's also the HQ for
the bomb squad's Northolt Squadron.
Sergeant Sam Jones has served here
for the past two years,
and today is the number one on duty
when an urgent call
comes in from the police.
Sam has been in the Army
for ten years.
He spent six months on bomb disposal
in Helmand Province in Afghanistan.
There are people like myself
who are pretty much
sitting around,
waiting for a phone to go.
And we'll always respond,
we'll never, ever think,
"Oh, that was a waste of time,"
because that's what we do.
The bomb squad's workload
is even heavier than usual
because of a spike in call-outs
caused by a new
and dangerous hobby -
magnet fishing.
Oh, my God! It's a bomb.
We're trying to figure out whether
this is a cannonball or a grenade.
Magnet fishing
is growing in popularity.
Mum?
Pull, pull, pull.
BLEEP! BLEEP!
And their aim, I think,
is treasure hunting.
Oh, that is absolutely brilliant.
Whoo! You'd better watch that.
Invariably, they will be in
their car, driving on public roads.
That's not helpful.
A magnet fishermen
has found a hand grenade
and driven with it to work, where
it's been reported to the police.
The situation has become critical.
With a gas main nearby,
if the grenade explodes,
it could rupture it,
with catastrophic results.
Sam and his number two,
Corporal Blake Cookson,
are fighting their way
through rush-hour traffic.
We are en route.
We're currently... basically
sort of swimming through concrete.
You'd think they'd be able to
see you in this big white truck.
With daylight fading,
it's become a race against time.
From the Chester unit,
Sergeant Steve Cockburn
and Corporal Carl McDonald
have been called
to the police station in Bolton,
where a man has been
taken into custody.
Staff Sergeant Steve Cockburn
was a policeman
before he joined the army at 23.
He passed his bomb squad exams
with a score of 98.9%.
This gentleman was arrested
at his place of work.
I think they'd conducted
a search of his locker
and found some ammunition items
there.
Amongst the items
is a suspected grenade.
Until the bomb squad
has assessed the haul,
the police have emptied
the car park.
There was a lot of
shotgun cartridges.
Some pyrotechnics there as well,
and quite a lot of
small arms ammunition.
It was almost like...
...the ammunition that Rambo
would take into war, really.
It's an offence to keep Army
munitions without certification.
Shamoolis or paralumiers
are powerful rocket flares
used to light up
the battlefield.
But making the grenade safe
is Steve's top priority.
I rendered the grenade safe
by removing the fuse
and then made an assessment
of the rest of the ammunition.
The suspect is still in custody.
So later that day,
the police search his flat
and find even more explosives.
They need Steve and Carl
to make the tower block safe.
It's an active crime scene,
and too dangerous
for our camera crew to enter.
Swansea must move the World War ll
shell before he can destroy it.
It's always exciting to deal
with something that is a threat.
The bomb squad are searching a flat
where suspected explosives
have been found.
The flat's owner was arrested
earlier in the day
when it was found he
was storing ammunition,
including a grenade,
in his locker at work.
Yeah.
There was evidence there for
the gentleman
attempting maybe to make
his own small arms ammunition.
Steve and Carl have discovered
a stash of illegal ammunition,
gunpowder and military flares.
They need to remove it before
they can be certain
all the residents in
the tower block are now safe.
There can't be any doubt that
that thing is safe.
The worst-case scenario is that
you declare a scene safe
and then a member of the public
is injured.
The role that we provide
is hugely important.
Now the police must find out
why a flat
was packed with explosives.
But a potential terrorist incident
has been avoided.
When a terrorist's house
is raided...
BANG
...the police and the bomb squad
can be targets themselves
if a property has been
deliberately booby-trapped.
So, which building is the...
Did you get the eyes on?
Eyes on... Specifically, where did
you walk up to?
How close did you get to
the buildings? And so on.
So that block of Semtex
is in there. Yeah.
Britain's bomb disposal elite
are recruited from the army,
navy and air force.
That window that was looked through,
was that glass or was it open?
It was open. So...
It's, like, got a shutter.
Already experienced soldiers,
those selected spend 11 weeks
with the Defence EOD Munitions
and Search Training Regiment,
or DEMS for short.
This £100 million training base
in Bicester...
...has been designed to
allow soldiers
to practise disposal techniques.
Today, the trainees are learning
how to enter a house
which might have concealed
booby-trap bombs.
Second Lieutenant Richard Kerr
is the number one.
He must go in first and defuse
any devices.
I'm not gonna go through
the front door.
I'm gonna try and find another
route in,
but I can't assume it's safe
up to that device,
because there might be
secondary devices
or hazards that are targeting me.
Someone's kitchen can be
a bomb-making factory.
There's no limit to an IED.
It's only down to
the bomb maker's imagination
and what he can get hold of.
They could booby-trap themselves.
They could booby-trap
the bomb-making factory.
We have a procedure to searching.
It's a very slow
and laborious process,
but it needs to be thorough
to ensure we stay alive.
But the first thing we'll do is
a visual check.
Ideally, we'll use a light or do
a visual grid sweep of the area.
So, I'm creating a path from
my point of entry to the device.
Staying inside the lines
could save his life.
If I've been searching and
zigzagging through the whole house,
I don't wanna forget what's safe
and what's not.
Obviously, if I become incapacitated
for some reason
and someone else needs to come in
behind me,
then they've got a safe route.
But even in that environment,
it takes a very long time to move
30cm forward.
There's a piece of plastic
explosive on the banister.
The trigger is wired
to the door handle.
Open the door and
the bomb detonates.
Yeah, so I'm happy that that end
is tied off onto that handle
and then onto the coil, the other
end, is on the tension release.
TICKING
BANG
A perfectly executed
training exercise.
In the real world,
bomb squad training
is put to the test time and again.
There are an estimated 21,000 sites
across Britain
where it's thought there may still
be unexploded World War ll bombs.
In woodland near Clitheroe...
...Swansea is at one of them.
He's heading back to the spot
where a live shell was found
the previous day.
Carrying two pounds of explosives,
it was designed to knock out tanks.
Two-pounders contain
explosive propellants
to fire the solid shot projectile
more than half a mile
in less than a second.
After 70 years in the ground,
it could be extremely volatile.
The only way to make the bomb safe
is to blow it up.
The gradient that bank was meant
that we couldn't surround it
in a sandbag wall and ensure that
no fragmentation of blast left.
Swansea's only option is to move it
to another location
to be destroyed.
It must be handled
with extreme care.
Police have cordoned off
a large field.
The next stage of
this precarious operation
is to set explosives
to destroy the shell.
As soon as we start preparing
the explosives,
there is an inherent risk.
The main drama for us is
the detonators.
They contain a primary explosive
which is fairly sensitive.
We have to handle those
very carefully.
Swansea must then retreat
100 metres...
...so Tony, his number two,
can safely trigger the demolition.
Are you happy? Yeah. Yeah?
Yeah, yeah.
Stand by!
Firing!
In Marlow, Buckinghamshire,
Sam from Northolt Troop
has finally arrived
at what is now a major incident.
A magnet fisherman found a
hand grenade and brought it to work.
Fearing an explosion could rupture
a nearby gas main,
emergency services have cordoned off
the area.
One of the police officers
came in and said,
"We need everyone away from the
windows, just in case it goes off."
And they told me that basically
someone fished it up
and then started driving round
with it in their car.
Yeah.
OK.
OK.
That's OK.
Brilliant.
I'll go and have a look.
It's the job of the bomb squad
to head towards danger.
So, I have an X-ray generator
and two small plates,
a roll of tape and
an assortment of gloves.
The grenade has been placed
in an oil drum
in an attempt to contain any blast.
It's rusted up.
To examine it properly,
Sam must pick it up.
So...
Every piece of ammunition
the army uses,
we are experts in.
But I know everything about
that hand grenade
and I could see that it had
a fly-off lever and a pin.
With them present,
I'm more interested to see what's
going on inside.
The crucial part of the bomb
squad's kit is their portable X-ray.
It's often the only way to tell
whether a device
still contains explosives.
That's the top of the grenade,
that's usually where you
put the pin in.
What we're trying to ascertain here
is you can see fragmentation lines
inside the shell
and I'm trying to see if this
middle channel is solid or not,
which usually indicates
the present of a detonator.
There seems to be components
in there,
so we're going to destroy
by demolition.
Next morning in a nearby field...
...the grenade is about
to be blown up.
And while the police keep the
curious public at a safe distance...
...Sam rigs 100g of plastic
explosives to the grenade.
He places it in a hole.
And it's then covered with sandbags.
Everyone must then retreat
100 metres
so the grenade can be blown up.
Quiet. Stand by.
A potentially catastrophic
incident has been avoided
thanks to the bomb squad.
Next time, in Liverpool...
...deadly explosives...
I've found similar-shaped
items like that
that have been home-made
by criminal gangs.
...the battle over a bomb
in the bedroom...
He doesn't want you taking it.
No.
...and in the seaside resort
of Llandudno...
Can I get you back about another
15 metres?
...there's an explosive discovery.