There’s a missile in the mail!’

The missile,used by Apache helicopter crews,is said to be one of the most powerful rockets in the world.

When it was opened at Wattisham Airfield,in Suffolk,more than 70 defence workers had to evacuate as bomb disposal experts rushed to the scene.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence documents show engineers servicing a gunship chopper at Camp Bastion declared its missile launcher broken. But they did not notice it had a missile in it.

Staff meant to inspect the launcher after it had been removed from the helicopter also failed to check it. As a result,the weapon was packaged up to be sent back to the UK as a “non dangerous” item,the newspaper said.

An inquiry launched by base chiefs found it was a “wholly avoidable” incident,it has been revealed after a Freedom of Information request.

An MoD spokeswoman was quoted as saying,”We have made every effort to address certain procedural shortfalls highlighted by the incident and there has been no repeat of the incident to date.”