Grenade!

[Luke T.]

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=637512

An inactive grenade had been found near the site where George Bush made a speech in Tbilisi, Georgia's security chief said today.

Gela Bezhuashvili, secretary of the National Security Council, said the Soviet-era grenade was found 100 feet from where the US president spoke yesterday.

A US Secret Service spokesman, Jonathan Cherry, said that his agency had been informed that a device, possibly a hand grenade, had been thrown near the stage during Bush's speech, hit someone in the crowd and fallen to the ground. Bezhuashvili said, however, that it was not thrown, it was "found."

Bezhuashvili said the grenade was found in "inactive mode." He described it as an engineering grenade - used for demolition or to simulate the effect of an artillery shell. Such grenades' blast-effect can be fatal at close range, but unlike offensive grenades, they are not designed to spread shrapnel.

The Georgians are trying to say Bush was not in any danger. But if someone could get a grenade past security, that is not safe by any means!