BELGRADE (Reuters) - A Montenegrin family thought a World War II artillery shell was the ideal replacement for a broken table leg -- until it exploded, injuring eight people as they were about to eat a meal.

The Miskovic family in the town of Danilovgrad was preparing the local specialty of grilled pork fat on the table when the old shell went off at the weekend, the Yugoslav daily Vecernje Novosti reported on Monday.

"It was our own idea to replace the missing leg with this cannon grenade," house owner Milovan Miskovic said. "We thought it was harmless...it was here in our courtyard for some 50 years."

But "all of a sudden, we heard a loud bang and then everything went black."

The newspaper reported the victims suffered only light injuries.