A hand grenade discovered at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday near the intersection of Arch Street and East Alley turned out to be a training device — but not until the surrounding one-block area had been shut down and one residence evacuated.

According to Assistant Chief Tom Liscinski of Meadville Police Department, the Erie City Police bomb squad rushed to the scene and identified the dummy grenade. Residents had returned to their homes, and the streets were re-opened by 10:10 a.m.

An individual who saw the device on a sidewalk called police, and Liscinski agreed that “it looked real enough. The pin was in it, and the handle was pulled up. It was quickly determined that we should at least get in touch with the Erie bomb squad.

The bomb squad chose to respond and “looked at it through high-powered binoculars” before slowly proceeding to the grenade, Liscinski said. “They said ‘you did the right thing by calling’ and took it away.”

Liscinski said police still had no idea how it got there or by whom, adding that authentic-looking dummy grenades can be purchased at military surplus centers, including in Meadville.