Unwelcome visitors plague Olympic shooting range

If a gold medal were handed out for bravery, it would surely go to the fox population of Woolwich.

The animals have been breaking in to the Olympic shooting venue at the Royal Artillery Barracks, south-east London, under the cover of darkness, chewing cables and wrecking microphones. One has even left a parting gift on the winners' podium.

Peter Underhill, who is in charge of the shooting competition for the Olympic organisers Locog, said: "They lived here before we created the venue so, at night, they're getting into some of our enclosures, going around and chewing things."

Richard Faulds, one of the shooters on the British team, and a gold medallist in Sydney, said: "We were dropping our guns off in the armoury when I caught something out of the corner of my eye.

"Ian, our coach, saw it full-on and he swears it was a fox. There was a little present left by the fox in the indoor rifle range."

He insists: "Most of the shooters are very fond of them."