British tank crashes into German couple's garden

The Army said a 'mechanical fault' caused the vehicle to veer off the road

A tank rolls into a yard in Paderborn, Germany. A technical malfunction with a drive chain reportedly led the British tank to deviate from the street and into a yard (EPA)

A British tank swerved off the road and crashed into an elderly couple's garden fence in Germany, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

The armoured Warrior infantry fighting vehicle, which belongs to a nearby military driving school, stopped just before it hit a house owned by Ulrich Tilsner and his wife in Paderborn.

The tank, which is owned by the British Army's Paderborn Garrison, was suffering from a 'mechanical fault' which caused it to veer off the road, the Army said.

Mr Tilsner, 67, from Paderborn, said he had been left "in shock" after seeing the vehicle ploughing through his garden, the BBC reported.

His granddaughter, Stephanie Ney, told German newspaper Neue Westfalische: “My grandfather called me and said, 'I'm a bit late, I have a tank in the garden.'”

She then rushed to her grandparents' house, where she found “a tank in the middle of the hedge and soldiers everywhere, and our dog was barking furiously”.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defence said that nobody had been injured in the incident, and that it was caused by a technical fault when “something came loose”.

An investigation is under way.