British Tank Fires Blanks In Village

Press, Volume C, Issue 29501, 1 May 1961, Page 20

British Tank Fires Blanks In Village

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright)

HANOVER. April 27. The Lower Saxony State Government has protested to British authorities about a British tank which is claimed to have fired blank shells at the village of Sodersdorf today. Village officials claimed that the shots —fired during manoeuvres—caused a panic among schoolchildren. The State Ministry of the Interior said that the tank fired several blank shells about 30 yards from the school,-and then moved on to the local police station and fired again from a distance of about 20 yards, British United Press reported. In a statement, the Ministry said that the tank posted itself directly in front of the police station. ’’According to the policeman’s wife, the tank fired a shot which caused damage in four rooms and the furniture*” it said. “All the windows in four rooms were broken. Furniture was badly damaged or destroyed . . . plaster fell to the floor. “The staircase was cracked.”

Children in the school panicked, and the teacher

sent them home when he could not control them, village officials added. A spokesman at British Army headquarters at Munchen-Gladbach said an Army ’ inquiry was being made. German farmers in the area last week protested that British tanks had run over newly-ploughed fields.