Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Hikers Find Live Grenade in Desert : Danger: Bomb squad safely detonates the military device, the latest discovery of explosives in the area.

Two hikers in a desert area south of Palmdale spotted a live military hand grenade Monday morning, deputies said.

Sheriff’s bomb squad members, summoned to the location, detonated the device safely.

The hikers, whose names were not released, discovered the grenade about 8:15 a.m. near Barrel Springs Road, not far from the California Aqueduct.

The hikers contacted the Antelope Valley Sheriff’s Station, Deputy Benita Hinojos said. The explosives experts determined it was a “live anti-personnel military hand grenade,” Hinojos said.

Authorities could not determine where the grenade had come from.

“It appeared to have been there for some time, as evidenced by rust and ground erosion around it,” said Lt. Joe Gutierrez.

The bomb squad decided it was best to explode the device where it rested rather than attempt to move it, Gutierrez said.

Barrel Springs Road was closed briefly to traffic while bomb squad members attached a charge and detonated the grenade from a safe distance, deputies said.

There have been numerous occasions of live explosives being left in remote areas of this desert region. On May 20, a women looking for bottles and other collectibles along a desert road near Littlerock set off an explosive device. Lynn Standish, 33, of Pearblossom, was killed in that incident, and her son, Michael Wayne Hepburn, 4, suffered a serious leg injury.

Sheriff’s investigators have obtained a warrant for the arrest of Scott Douglas Hamby, 32, in connection with Standish’s death, but the suspect remains at large, authorities said.

Standish’s mother, Virginia Holmes, said Monday that Michael has fully recovered from his leg injury.