ORENBURG, March 12 (RIA Novosti) - A crowded building in the Orenburg Region in the Urals was evacuated when an elderly woman decided to hand over two grenades to the police, a law enforcement source said on Wednesday.

The woman telephoned the local police hotline and said that she wanted to hand in two F-1 and RGD-5 grenades. She told police that she was in a crowded administrative building, some 30 meters away from the police station.

When the police unit arrived and the woman took the weapons out of her bag, policemen saw that one of the grenades could have gone off at any time, as its firing pin mechanism was damaged. All visitors and staff were evacuated, and the building was cordoned off.

The grenades were defused by local bomb disposal officers. A probe into the incident is underway.

Fragmentation grenades generate on average 350 fragments when they explode and can inflict serious injuries within a range of approximately 15 meters. People caught within 3 meters of detonation are almost certain to be killed.