Two friends who fished a live hand grenade out of a canal have made another startling discovery.

Pals Luke Sturgess, 12, and Dion Evans, 16, hit the headlines last month when they came across the Second World War explosive device in the canal next to the Old Trooper Bridge in Christleton.

The pair, who use a magnet to find unusual metal items hidden underwater, have been returning to the same spot ever since and on Monday, October 2 they pulled out a rust-covered handgun.

The boys carried the gun home to Luke's mum Dawn Sturgess, who reported the find to the police. The weapon has now been taken away for tests and is likely to be smelted.

Dawn said the gun was found in “exactly the same” location as the grenade – but the police were unable to say how or why the once-lethal items came to be there.

She added: “Luke's been back out there four or five times since finding the grenade, looking for interesting things.

“Our table is covered with hundreds of bits and pieces he's dragged out of the canal.”

Dawn said that Luke, who attends Christleton High School and lives in Christleton, was always sensible and reports any dangerous-looking finds to her. Last month, he sent her a picture of the grenade on his phone after discovering it and bomb disposal experts were later called to detonate it safely.

It was identified as a Russian fragmentation grenade, which dates back to the Second World War.

A Cheshire Police spokesman confirmed: “At 6.29pm on October 2, police received a report of an old pistol being found in the canal near the Trooper bridge in Christleton. Police attended a nearby address to recover the pistol. The find came after an old grenade was recovered last month.”