TWO young boys were "shocked" to find a handgun in a canal.
Cousins Deejay Crome, 10, and Billy Harris, 12, were magnet fishing at the canal in Kirkintilloch on Sunday, February 5 when they discovered the firearm.
Billy’s mum Debbie explained: "My husband loves fishing, so he got into a hobby of magnet fishing.
"My wee boy and my nephew think this is amazing, so they asked to take the magnets down to the canal.
"They were there for quite a wee bit, and they pulled the rope back in with the magnet and this gun came up.
"They phoned my husband and he told them to put it in the bag they’d taken down and take it up to the house."
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Debbie, 40, says they contacted police who told them to take the gun, which she describes as "rusty" and "really heavy", and put it outside as they were concerned that while the trigger was no longer there, the pin could still be in place.
Police collected the gun on Monday, February 6 and said it will be sent to a lab to have the rust removed and check for a serial number.
While Debbie says she was "horrified" by them finding the gun, Deejay and Billy say they were "shocked but excited" with the discovery.
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She said: "I was in my work, my husband messaged me and said the boys had found a gun and I genuinely thought he was kidding on, I thought this was a wind-up because my husband is a wind-up merchant and when he sent me a picture I thought ‘oh my god’."
She continued: "I was quite horrified.
"My first thought was ‘has this been thrown in, who’s been hurt, the kids could have been hurt’ because we couldn’t see if there were any bullets or anything in it.
"They were like ‘oh my god, this is a gun’ and you know what it’s like, they have got a bit of excitement, but I think me as a mum had a bit of fear in me at the same time when they found it."
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “We were made aware of a firearm recovered from the Forth and Clyde Canal in Kirkintilloch on Monday, February 6.
“The item is historic and is not believed to pose any risk to the public.
“The firearm has been seized by police and will be subject to further analysis.”
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