VANCOUVER -- A grenade reported at a busy Metro Vancouver transit station was inert, transit police say.
The item was reported on a bus at a Canada Line station in Richmond Sunday morning.
A bus driver told transit police he'd seen a man on the bus parked at Bridgeport Station with a shopping bag that appeared to contain a suspicious object, Const. Michael Yake said.
The driver believed it was a grenade.
Officers were called in at around 11 a.m. to investigate.
The Lower Mainland's Explosives Disposal Unit was brought in, and the area was evacuated out of an abundance of caution.
In a message posted Sunday evening on Twitter, Yake said the EDU determined the grenade was inert, and had not been refilled with explosives.
Yake said earlier in the day that the man who'd brought the strange device on board was arrested for possession of a weapon dangerous to public peace, but that any actual charges would depend on what the investigation determined.
In an email to CTV News Monday, Const. Yake said possessing an inert grenade is in itself not a criminal offence, but charges could be possible in some situations, depending on why the person has it and what they're doing with it.
"In this situation, the investigation is still ongoing to determine if charges will be recommended," he said.
The man has been released from police custody.
