Police in Shanghai are trying to discover the origin of a hand grenade that exploded at a waste recycling station in the city's Pudong New Area on Saturday afternoon, seriously injuring four workers.

The accident occurred at about 4:40 pm when one of the workers found a strange-looking metal object among a pile of trash he was transporting. Not realizing the object was a grenade, he played with it, pulling the pin.

One of the workers, Cao Zhizhong, remains in critical condition at Shanghai No 7 People's Hospital with serious brain injuries.

"Cao was hurt the most seriously among the four and is still in critical condition. He suffered from brain injuries and has to depend on a respiratory machine at present," a nurse in the hospital's intensive care unit said Sunday.

Two others remain in the same hospital with serious abdomen injuries. Both are listed in stable condition. The fourth man was treated and released on Saturday.

Zhang dong, a spokesman for the Pudong New Area Public Security Bureau, said police are focusing on the source of the grenade, but he wouldn't give any details of the investigation.

One possibility is that the grenade is left over from WWII, a source of several weapons found in the city over the last few years.

In april, dock workers in Baoshan District found 405 bullets and 20 artillery shells in an underground warehouse near the site the Japanese army landed in the city in 1937.

In 2001, a fisherman also discovered an old 7.5-meter-long torpedo near the the city's Dongjiadu Ferry Terminal along the Huangpu River.

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