A MUM has described her shock after she pulled part of a gun out of the canal behind Sainsbury's in Kidderminster while magnet fishing with her two young children.

Nadine Anthony, 32, made the shock discovery on Saturday (September 5) while magnet fishing with her fiancé Justin Haywood, 35, her son Dominic, 10, and daughter Madison, 5.

It was on her first throw casting the magnet that Nadine retrieved what later turned out to be part of a firearm's magazine - with one bullet still left inside.

The mum-of-three told The Shuttle: "We went magnet fishing for the first time on Saturday - my fiancé bought the stuff for it on eBay.

"We decided to go local so went to the canal behind the back of Sainsbury's. It was my first throw-in.

"I was jumping up and down saying I've found part of a gun - it still had a bullet left in it.

"My two youngest children were with me so I handed over to my partner to handle. I was too worried in case anything went off - you can't be too sure.

"We took it home and cleaned it up and found out it was part of a magazine, so we wrapped it up in tissue and left it in the shed - I didn't want it in the house - until we could take it to the police station."

Nadine handed the magazine into Kidderminster Police Station on Wednesday, where she was told it would be examined to see if it was linked to any crimes.

"It was all quite scary," said Nadine. "We thought the most we would end up finding would be a shopping trolley because of where we were fishing, but we managed to find part of a gun.

"We don’t know if it's been used to hurt somebody or is part of an ongoing investigation. You never know - we could potentially be helping to solve a crime."

Nadine said her and partner Justin plan to go magnet fishing again soon.

"Maybe we'll find the rest of the gun," she said.

A spokesman for West Mercia Police said: "We can confirm that a woman who was magnet fishing in Kidderminster handed in a very old magazine which appeared to have one round of ammunition in it.

"The magazine has been made safe and we are in the process of determining how to move forwards, however we are not linking this to any investigation at this stage.

"We would like to thank this lady for being vigilant and for making us aware.

"Magnet fishing and metal detecting are becoming more popular and we would like to advise anyone who finds something that appears to be an explosive or a firearm to please call 101 in the first instance.

"Especially when they are found in water, they may be damaged and so are not safe to handle."