Not so friendly fire in Australia

Not so friendly fire in Australia

Army trainees faced live bullets instead of blanks after a weapons blunder, an Australian Defence Force (ADF) report has revealed.

A training platoon was on exercises at the School of Infantry at Singleton in March last year when three to five live rounds were fired from a machine gun. A trainee infantryman had loaded the weapon with a belt of 200 rounds straight from its packaging.

No one was injured but the gun's blank firing barrel was damaged, according to a defence report prepared for Defence Minister Brendan Nelson that was obtained by News Limited under Freedom of Information laws.

Live rounds fired on army trainees (Herald Sun, 25 September 2007)