A large emergency presence was in Bury on Friday night as a "controlled explosion" took place after a grenade was reportedly found.

Greater Manchester Police cordoned off Chesham Road at the junction with Walmersley Road following reports of a "suspicious item".

Emergency services - including the army bomb disposal squad, fire, ambulance and police - were at the scene.

They were called to reports of the suspicious item just after 4pm.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) confirmed that a "precautionary controlled explosion" was conducted.

A GMP spokesman said: "Following earlier reports of a suspicious item, EOD have conducted a precautionary controlled explosion in Chesham Road."

It is understand the item was an old grenade which was found during renovations.

Bury Times: The site after the controlled explosionThe site after the controlled explosion (Image: NQ)The controlled explosion was on a field off Chesham Road.

A police cordon has now been lifted and no emergency services are present.

Residents in the area have spoken to the Bury Times about the incident.

David and Chris Morecroft, have lived on Chesham Road for 48 years and said "nothing like this normally happens".

David said: "It has been a bit of excitement here to end a nice Friday.

"We saw the emergency services, I was downstairs and saw all the flashing lights and I went on the Friends of Chesham, and they were posting stuff and saying everything is blocked off and all the side streets are blocked off.

"And people were saying they found something at a house, and it got escorted from there to the field.

"It was interesting to see the planned explosion and I trusted the emergency services to deal with it.

"It was very efficient."

@theburytimes A large emergency presence was in Bury this evening as a ‘controlled explosion’ took place. Read more on the Bury Times! #bury #burytimes #controlledexplosion ♬ original sound - The Bury Times

Courtney Kenny, 20, also lives in the area and said: "There has been renovations in a property for a while and I don't know if it was a gardener or a builder, but they obviously found something suspicious and they rang the police and then the police and the bomb squad came.

"It is just a bit surreal isn't it? I don't feel in danger, it's just a bit surreal, like how is this going on in Walmersley?

"I'm just glad they have found it."

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