Streets evacuated in grenades find
DRAMATIC scenes unfolded in a quiet residential area of Southsea yesterday after a suspicious package was discovered.
It is believed Jessie Road resident Elaine Godfrey found a briefcase with hand grenades inside while looking through her late partner's effects in the loft.
The find meant more than one hundred residents living in Jessie Road and surrounding streets were evacuated.
The drama unfolded yesterday after Ms Godfrey alerted the police to her find.
The roads were then cordoned off at around 2pm, leading to rush-hour travel chaos as drivers attempted to get home but found they couldn't.
It meant that while families were able to remain at home, those trying to get back home were not allowed access.
Benyoussef Allouch, 34, of Jessie Road, said: 'I only left my house for 10 minutes to go and pray at the Mosque because it's a Friday.
'My wife and kid are just over there inside our house, and they won't let me in and keep telling them to get away from the window.
'It's a very frustrating situation because I thought it would be okay to return before I left.'
Neighbour 39-year-old Shabina Begum said: 'I live just inside the barrier but they wouldn't let me go into my house.
'All I want is to grab my car keys so I can go and pick my daughter up from school.
'I honestly don't know how I'm going to pick her up at the moment.
'I'm not worried about the bomb though, they're professionals so I'm sure they'll know what to do.'
At around 5pm all the houses were evacuated, with a rest centre set up at the Devonshire Baptist Church hall as part of Portsmouth's major incident response programme.
It meant residents had somewhere to sit and wait while officers from Hampshire Constabulary, Hampshire Fire and Rescue and the Royal Navy Bomb Disposal Team worked to make the area safe.
Navy bomb disposal experts, based at Horsea Island, X-rayed the briefcase and found what they believed to be parts of a grenade.
They also used a state-of-the-art robot to take a closer look without endangering any lives.
After a long wait, the experts decided to destroy the grenades in what is known as a 'disruption' – a controlled detonation.
It went off with a soft bang at around 6.30pm.
But the cordons remained in place while officers investigated the house to see if there were other items likely to pose a danger.
A police source said a number of blank-firing weapons had also been found, but they had been made safe and posed no danger.
Superintendent Neil Sherrington said he was pleased with the way the emergency services and the council worked together.
He added: 'We do plan for these incidents and I'm pleased to say those plans have come to fruition without any major problems being identified.
'We're just pleased that everyone has co-operated with the request to evacuate.
'It is in the interests of safety and their own well-being.'
Residents have to wait to be allowed back
RESIDENTS were finally allowed back to their homes around 10 hours after events yesterday began to unfold.
Many of those who spoke to The News said they could not understand why it was taking so long to resolve the situation.
Some had been unable to get home since 2pm, and all cordons were finally lifted at around 9pm.
But superintendent Neil Sherrington said the majority of the delay was in planning how to minimise the risks to those living nearby, and then the lengthy process of evacuation.
He said: 'The time is mainly down to the need to evacuate people and accommodate the elderly and infirm, and some who don't want to leave their homes.
'Part of it is the process we follow to deal with the incident and then having followed that, we have to determine how we manage the risk to everyone.
'We have a clear, set process to go through to determine what we are dealing with.'
Supt Sherrington would not confirm yesterday whether the device destroyed was a grenade.
And resident William Dixon, 31, of Esslemont Road was angry at the lack of information to residents.
He said: 'What annoys me is they give out so little information that people immediately assume that it must be terrorists or something like that, when it just ends up being some unexploded Second World War shell or grenade or something. All it does is wind people up and spread confusion.'
After a long wait, the experts decided to destroy the grenades in what is known as a ‘disruption' - a controlled detonation.
It went off with a soft bang at around 6.30pm.
But the cordons remained in place while officers investigated the house to see if there were other items likely to pose a danger.
A police source said a number of blank-firing weapons had also been found, but they had been made safe and posed no danger.
Superintendent Neil Sherrington said he was pleased with the way the emergency services and the council worked together.
He added: ‘We do plan for these incidents and I'm pleased to say those plans have come to fruition without any major problems being identified.
‘We're just pleased that everyone has co-operated with the request to evacuate.
‘It is in the interests of safety and their own well-being.'
Streets evacuated in grenades find
All I want is to pick my daughter up
Shabina Begum
10-hour drama ends when devices are destroyed by bomb disposal expertss
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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