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Daniel Ortiz was on West Street to see what the GSU found:

The item in the middle of your screen is a live grenade, very inconspicuous, and even more dangerous.

It looks harmless, like a toy ball, but don't be mistaken. It is one of those high explosives which went missing from the BATSUB batch of grenades in 2004.

The GSU made the discovery in a routine search, secured the area and called in the experts to retrieve it.

And what a place to find such a dangerous item, if you'll believe, it was discovered underneath a church!

Sylburn Arthurs Sr. - Assistant Pastor, Full Gospel Church of God
"This is our church. This church has been here since 1952 and the premises are really open. Nobody lives here and what I think happen is that people would get on the compound and I guess this is what happened. "

"This is the first time something of that kind of gravity has happened to us because normally they would find stolen bikes and other things like that but this is the first time a gun has been found I understand last night and then now the officer told us that they have found a grenade. We are very disappointed that that would happen and we find that very disrespectful. There are only two churches on this street."

Daniel Ortiz
"Was there anyone inside?"

Sylburn Arthurs Sr.
"When today? Yes we were having a meeting inside the church."

Daniel Ortiz
"In light of that it makes the situation even graver that a group of people are gathered in this church and there is a grenade underneath."

Sylburn Arthurs Sr.
"That's very dangerous. I know that we don't feel very safe because of that. In fact in that meeting we are looking at ways in which we can correct that whole situation."

It is a day to rejoice because the grenade was recovered without incident, and the BDF experts tell us it's one more of those dangerous explosives off the street:

Lt. Col. James Requena - BDF Explosives Expert
"It's a L109A1 high explosive grenade fragmentation from similar batch that was missing from the British Forces, so the count now is at 8 with 16 still remaining out of 24. The grenade is in excellent condition, it was being preserved. We got the call from the police department that they found something suspected and we came down to verify that yes it's a high explosive fragmentation grenade."

Daniel Ortiz
"Was the pin still in sir?"

Lt. Col. James Requena - BDF Explosives Expert
"Yes the safety pin was still intact. From the observation from where it was retrieve it has been stored there to be recovered by the person who put it there. It wasn't thrown or set as a booby trap for anyone. It was being stored and would have been retrieved for use sometime down the road."

One area resident, who spoke to us off-camera, put the incident into context. She explained that there are children who frequent the area regularly under that church:

Resident
"The only time they are not there was when they are at school but at the moment they come from school in the evening its right under the church they go or up on the verandah. Sometime I have to tell them to keep away from under that church not for that reason that something is there but you see when it rains under the church gets mucky and they go there to play and then they come home mucky. But it's a place where not only my kids go but kids from all over the neighborhood goes to play under that church. I am only glad that you guys find it because I don't know what they would have done with that because we lives right here. Thank God you all found that."

In the interview, you heard reference to a gun which was found on the premises of the church before the grenade. Well, the GSU report that just after midnight last night, they conducted a search underneath the building where they found a chrome 9mm pistol, which had 6 live rounds of ammunition inside a 15-shooter metal magazine.

The officers say that the weapon was found tucked between the flooring of the building, and a cement pillar which helps to support the flooring.

The items were retrieved, and a check is being made to verify if they were reported stolen or lost. The GSU says that the search is part of a special operation launched in the George Street gang base. They also report that there is a known affiliate of the George Street Gang which lives in close proximity of the church.

So, that makes it 2 dangerous items which were found in the area. If either of those were found by the children who go under that church, tonight's report could have been terrifyingly different.

And returning, to that grenade, the GSU reports that the Scenes of Crime personnel recovered a partial print from it, and they will run it in the AFIX fingerprinting system to see if any matches show up.

According to the officers, the grenade was found underneath the church, inside a section attached to the bottom flooring. The area was made out of concrete and it had a hole about the size of a grapefruit, where it was stuffed.