A beach has reopened after an old grenade found by children was detonated by bomb disposal experts.

The four youngsters from Lerwick Amateur Swimming Club (LASC) were taking part in the Voar Redd Up clean-up in Shetland when they made the discovery on Sunday, while accompanied by two adults.

Shetland Coastguard cordoned off the area at Seafield Beach near Lerwick after the find was reported on Monday.

A Royal Navy bomb disposal team arrived on Wednesday afternoon to deal with the grenade, and detonated it at around 4pm.

The beach has now reopened.

It is not known how old the grenade was but the coastguard described it as ''very rusty''.

Kathleen Anderson, whose daughter Rebecca was with the group that found the grenade, said: ''The girls were taking part in a sponsored beach clean-up when one of them found it. She had an idea what it might be and they knew not to touch it.

''They were quite excited and chatted about it as children do. It's not exactly what you would expect to find during a beach clean-up.''

The other girls, aged around 11, were Kayla Shearer, Ruby Malcolmson and Kirsty Tomlinson.

LASC posted a picture of the find on its Facebook page with the message: ''An unusual find for Kayla, Kirsty, Ruby and Rebecca at our Voar Redd Up!

''Well done lasses for spotting it but not disturbing it!! Let's hope no other LASC outings end up with the police, coastguard and bomb disposal squad involved.''