THE Guyana Defence Force (GDF) is investigating how one of its smoke-grenades came to be in the possession of a 10-year-old, while at school on Monday.

The discovery was made during school hours at the Timehri Primary, on the East Bank, and the child’s uncle, an army sergeant, was on Monday night pulled in by the police for questioning.

According to reports, police were called in to the school around 13:30 hrs on Monday after a teacher saw the 10-year-old walking up the school’s stairs with the grenade in his hand.

It is alleged that when asked by the teacher what he had in his hand, the child replied that it was “a spark” he got from his seven-year-old cousin, who lives at Timehri.

The sergeant, who is stationed at Special Forces Base Camp Stephenson, reportedly told investigators that on March 10, he uplifted 50 smoke grenades with which to train ranks.

He is reported to have said that of the lot, only 46 grenades were used for the training, and that three of the remaining four were diffused. The other, he said, was inadvertently left in his travelling bag.

He said that upon returning home, his seven-year-old son must have taken the grenade out of the travelling bag and given it to his cousin, mistakenly thinking it was some sort of toy.

Police subsequently searched the sergeant’s home and found nothing else.