The Explosives Disposal Unit checked out a suspicious item on the grounds of Lynn Fripps Elementary Friday afternoon while students were kept inside.

A lockdown was issued at the school on the last day before spring break after a suspicious item was found on the playground.

Const. Craig Van Herk of the Langley RCMP said the item was wet and soggy, and appeared to have been there for some time.

Out of “an abundance of caution” students were kept inside and neighbours were warned.

The EDU was called in to check out and safely dispose of the item if it posed any risk.

They departed at about 2:15 p.m. with what turned out to be an old smoke bomb, the kind sometimes sold with fireworks.

“Nothing explosive in it,” Van Herk said.

The lockdown ended after the item was declared safe, and parents began picking up their children to take them home for spring break.

Van Herk, who is also a school liaison officer in the Langley area, said the students were a little distracted but otherwise did well.

The lockdown was a perimiter lockdown the type in which access in and out of the school is controlled, but students and staff can still move around within the building as normal.