Live artillery shell just misses village and explodes in field

An off-target artillery shell flew over a village and a main road before landing in a farmer’s field near a railway line about five miles from the Salisbury Plain firing range, according to a report.

The explosion left a 6ft-wide crater and sent debris flying for up to 40ft.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said live firing exercises at Salisbury had been suspended, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Farmer Andrew Snook, 55, found the crater in a field of maize on Friday last week, but it was actually fired two days before.

“There was a lot of heavy firing going on and this one blast did really make me wince. I thought, that’s close. It must have come over a couple of villages to get here,” he said.