A grenade found outside a home near West 39th and Olive streets has been detonated by a Plano, Texas-based bomb squad.
Officials do not believe it was a live grenade, but destroyed it as a precaution, said Shawn Vaughn, spokesman for the Texarkana, Texas, Police Department. The bomb squad arrived in Texarkana just before 5 p.m. Tuesday and detonated the grenade within just a few minutes.
Residents who had been evacuated were allowed to return to their homes shortly after 5 p.m.
Investigators were not sure Tuesday where the grenade came from or how long it had been at the location.
Contractors working on the home discovered the grenade early Tuesday afternoon and officials were contacted.
Texas-side police and firefighters blocked off the area and evacuated homes within two blocks of the house where the grenade was found.
A neighborhood resident said the house had been empty a couple of weeks and a crew had been scraping paint on the house.
Carl Sims, who has lived in the neighborhood about 14 years, lives behind the house where the grenade was found.
Though it was an inconvenience being out of his home for several hours, Sims had a positive attitude about the situation.
"Let them do their jobs, just in case it's dangerous," he said. "I can find something to do while I wait," he said.
Brothers Alexander and Jerry Crawford also live in the neighborhood and watched the activity with interest.
"We hope this is a false alarm," Jerry Crawford said. "I looked outside and saw the fire trucks and knew something was going on."