Police say two children discovered a loaded handgun near a South Portland playground on Saturday.

The girls who spotted the gun told police it was lying on the ground near a playground at the Redbank Community Center.

"We found the gun and thought it was a toy gun," Gianna Smith, one of the children who found the gun, told CBS 13. "But it was actually real and then she threw it and got our grandmother.”

Police said the gun, a Taurus revolver, was loaded, didn’t have a safety and had recently been fired.

South Portland police are now trying to determine if the gun is connected to any recent crimes in the area.

Police said the girls did the right thing by telling an adult about the discovery of the weapon.

"They said that if you ever find one just run and go tell our parents, not pick it up and do stuff with it," Smith said.

More From WQCB Brewer Maine