HC Deb 19 October 1995 vol 264 c346W
Mr. Llwyd

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the outcome of investigations into the discovery of an anti-tank missile at Hayes, west London, on 25 September 1994. [37530]

Mr. Soames

An investigation by the Army's special investigation branch concluded that the missile had probably been fired in the course of an exercise on Salisbury plain, picked up in its inert state by a member of the public and subsequently disposed of in the field at Hayes where it was later discovered. It was a practice version of the tube-launched optically steered wire guided—TOW—anti-tank missile, which does not have an explosive warhead. Having been fired, it contained no propellant or any other explosive or combustible substance.