Tank hits house
OSLO, Norway (AP) - It has not been good week for Norwegian tank drivers. First a new car was smashed during a training exercise. Now this.
Norwegian homeowner Odin Viken woke with a start Monday, fearing his house was being shaken by an earthquake.
But this earthquake was manmade: a 26-ton tank slammed into Viken's house in Vassbotna, some 565 kilometres north of Oslo, at about 5:30 a.m., the military said.
The Norwegian tank, a CV-90 armoured fighting vehicle, was part of the 15-nation Battle Griffin military exercise in western and northern Norway, a statement said. There were no injuries.
The tank went through a wall and partway into the bathroom, Viken said on national radio.
"It sounded like an earthquake. The whole house shook, and it was terrible," he said. "I was very afraid and very angry."
The military said the cause of the accident was being investigated, while Viken said the driver told him that he lost control after the vehicle struck an ice patch.
On Wednesday, a 40-ton Leopard tank ran over a nearly new Mercedes-Benz on a roadway, flattening half the car but causing no injuries.
The Battle Griffin exercise with 14,000 NATO and other troops lasts through March 11.
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