Royal Marines spark security scare after losing assault rifle on Dartmoor
The Royal Marines has lost a deadly assault rifle at a national park during a training exercise.
A major security alert is in place after elite soldiers noticed an SA80 automatic rifle was unaccounted for during drills at Dartmoor.
The exercise was halted once chiefs noticed the weapon was missing.
Navy sources insist the weapon was not loaded.
Devon and Cornwall Police are now scrambling to fiund the gun – but it is still missing.
A source told The Sun: ‘Losing your weapon is one of the worst things a marine or a soldier can do.
‘The worst case scenario is this gun falls into criminal hands. It could be found by a rambler or even by kids on a wilderness walk.’
The soldiers involved were all competing for a leadership promotion, the source claims.
They added the incident is ‘really embarrassing’ for the military.
The SA80 is a standard issue rifle and has a range of more than 400 metres.
It can fire .556 calibre ammunition at a speed of 940 metres per second.
At least eight guns have been lost or stolen since 2020, including two working machine guns.
The Ministry of Defence revealed it has lost a deactivated AK47 assault rifle, a GPMG machine gun and a Glock X43 pistol last year.
The Royal Navy confirmed: ‘We are investigating an incident related to the loss of an unloaded rifle by the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.