[Infowarrior] - You can't make this up...

[Richard Forno]

Pub is closed by Monty Python grenade
Tony Bassett
19.03.09

BUILDINGS were evacuated, a street was cordoned off and a bomb  
disposal team called in after workmen spotted a suspicious object.

But the dangerous-looking weapon turned out to be the Holy Hand  
Grenade of Antioch, made famous in the 1975 film Monty Python And The  
Holy Grail.

Police and a fire crew were first on the scene in Shoreditch, east  
London, when water company workers found a copy of the film prop under  
a fire hydrant cover.

They evacuated a pub and another building in Tabernacle Street, while  
office staff in another building were stopped from leaving.

But when the bomb squad arrived, they quickly established there was no  
danger and the street was declared safe. In the film, the grenade was  
used to slaughter a killer rabbit. Python actor Eric Idle had  
filmgoers in stitches as he said: "Oh Lord. Bless this hand grenade,  
that with it thou mayest blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy."

Alberto Romanelli, who owns the Windmill pub nearby, said the police  
action in ordering his pub to be evacuated had been as ridiculous as  
the film scene. "They evacuated the pub while they were doing X-rays  
and stuff," he said.

"It all lasted about 45 minutes before they decided it was nothing -  
which I thought was pretty obvious from the start. I lost a good  
hour's worth of business."

Emma Eve, a training centre receptionist, said: "It was scary. They  
wouldn't let us out of the building." Office worker Graham White said:  
"The situation was nearly as crazy as the film."

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