..After a gun and a knife there's a new weapon of choice at Chelsea... smoke bombs!
Chelsea have launched an investigation after a smoke grenade went off in the dressing rooms at the club's training ground.
Players, officials and other staff from Chelsea's reserve, youth and academy teams ran from the building with hands covering their faces because of the thick smoke.
Chelsea chief executive Ron Gourlay was at the complex in Surrey on Friday morning and witnessed the remarkable scenes.
He has already begun disciplinary proceedings and owner Roman Abramovich was briefed about the shocking incident on Friday afternoon.
Abramovich has backed Gourlay to take swift action and the club's chief executive has vowed to discipline players and even sack staff after the extraordinary event.
It is the latest in a string of incidents at the training ground. Last year Ashley Cole accidentally shot an intern in the leg with an air rifle, and a knife was found in the youth-team dressing room.
Sportsmail understands two highly-rated reserve-team players are under investigation over the smoke bomb and will face a club disciplinary panel. If they are found guilty, Chelsea will consider terminating their contracts.
Gourlay will take statements from witnesses to the event that has horrified the coaching staff at Cobham and the club confirmed they were investigating. One source claimed the training ground has descended into 'lawlessness'.
Some first-team players watched the drama unfold from their own dressing-room area and manager Andre Villas-Boas was also made aware of the incident.
The grenade, which was set off in one of the reserve-team dressing rooms shortly before training at 10.30am, set off fire alarms and triggered a full evacuation procedure. Fire marshals employed by Chelsea were sent into the building, but it was more than an hour before anyone else could go back into the dressing rooms.
Chelsea's initial investigations suggest the grenade may have been brought back from a paint-balling trip and one of the players then pulled the ring inside the dressing room.
Some of the more responsible reserve and youth-team players are becoming worried about their safety at one of the most expensively-assembled academy systems in world football.
Last December a knife described as 'something out of a Rambo film' was discovered in the youth-team dressing room. It was later claimed to have been a workman's tool which had been inadvertently left behind. Last January, Cole was forced to apologise to an intern after the England left back brought an air rifle to training and shot him in the leg in the first-team dressing room.
The latest incident is beyond Villas-Boas's remit. Instead, the Chelsea manager is attempting to unite a fractured dressing room after another controversial week.
The former Porto coach claimed it is impossible to have friendships with players in the dressing room and admitted it is an 'unhappy' place.
Daily Mail
Always trouble at Cobham
What a name.
