Tower of London poppies: Courier throws ceramic poppy parcel 25 feet over fence

The CCTV footage backs up tweets from disappointed individuals with broken poppies

CCTV footage from a member of the public allegedly shows a courier delivering a parcel with a ceramic poppy from the Tower of London by throwing it 25 feet over a fence to land by the front door.

The footage was uploaded by a member of the public who was one of thousands who bought the ceramic poppies for £25 each.

Posting the video on YouTube, he writes that the Yodel courier "tries various locked gates for almost five minutes before giving up and just throwing the package over 25 feet to the house front door on right of picture. It lands in a plant by the front door, breaking its fall."

Video: Watch the last 30 seconds

The "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red" exhibition saw 888,246 poppies - designed by artists Paul Cummins and Tom Piper - placed in the Tower of London's moat between 17 July and 11 November. Each poppy represented a British military fatality during the First World War which began 100 years ago.

Fortunately, the poppy within the parcel was not damaged.

Dick Stead, executive chairman of Yodel, said in a statement: "We are immensely relieved to hear the poppy was undamaged, but have taken the incident very seriously and have suspended the courier with immediate effect.

However, many people took to Twitter to claim that they received broken poppies in the post after being delivered by Yodel:

Other Twitter users argued that this latest mishap from Yodel was nothing new:

Yodel's Stead added in a statement: "It's a great privilege to be delivering all 888,246 poppies and we have briefed our staff to act with special care. One poor delivery is one too many. If anyone is found to have not treated the parcels with the respect they require, they will face disciplinary action.