A Royal Navy bomb squad has blown up a suspect military explosive device found on Gress beach on Lewis.
Police officers guarded the area overnight and warned people to keep away for their own safety.
Ordnance experts undertook a controlled explosion of the French naval device which appears to have been thrown high up into sand dunes by recent storms.
The device appears to have been a powerful marker flare used by submarines.
It was washed up on the coast of Broadbay in Lewis which as the location of Nato wargames in October.
Exercise Joint Warrior saw sixteen navy units and over 40 warplanes taking part in the large scale military exercise including air bombardment, naval gunfire and helicopter operations taking place off the west coast.
Submarines were involved in the simulated blowing up of mines in sea battles off the beach.
Local man Adam Wilson picked it up unaware it could be dangerous.
Mr Wilson – a nurse at Western Isles Hospital -
He was shocked when realised it might be live and could blow up in his hands.
He said: “I pulled it out, had a look at it, and got a shock when I realised it was probably a “bomb” or something of that sort.
“So I laid it down carefully and called the police who came down and cordoned the area.”
A Police Scotland spokesman said the Royal Navy bomb squad from Faslane arrived off the overnight ferry MV Hebridean Isles and carried out a controlled explosion on Monday morning.
