Police discovered that a suspected hand grenade carried by five foreign nationals, was actually a lighter bought from the Port Dickson Army Museum.

They learned this after tracking down and detaining the family of five, who were on holiday in Malaysia.

This was after a hotel staff in Port Dickson had purportedly spotted what he believed was a hand grenade in a bag that one of the five had taken after checking out of the hotel.

Inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar in a Twitter post congratulated the Special Task Force on Organised Crime (Stafoc) on tracking down the family.

"Congratulations Stafoc for detaining five Syrians in Cameron Highlands. A lighter (grenade replica) seen by the hotel staff in Port Dickson yesterday was confiscated,” wrote Khalid.

Yesterday, Port Dickson police chief Adzli Abu Shah said police could only ascertain whether a grenade was indeed in the bag after tracking down the bag's owner, a man in his 30s.

"When the man was checking out, the hotel employee had gone into the room for the routine check.

“He saw a bag under the bed and on opening it saw what he thought looked like a grenade," he had said.