Fighter Jet Accidentally Shoots Control Tower

A Norwegian fighter jet has accidentally machine-gunned a control tower with three officers inside.

The trio survived unhurt after the F-16 strafed the tower while taking part in a mock attack on the uninhabited island of Tarva, the military said.

"An investigation has been opened," Captain Brynjar Stordal, a spokesman for the Norwegian military, told the AFP news agency.

A hail of bullets hit the tower in the incident, which happened shortly after midnight on 13 April.

Major Stian Roen said the jet was supposed to fire at a simulated target on the airfield around 500m away but "something went wrong".

The same tower had been hit by at least one round when it was fired on by F-16s in a similar incident in 2009, when no one was injured.

Two years ago a Dutch F-16 mistakenly machine-gunned the control tower at the Vliehors range on Vlieland island, north of Amsterdam, during a training flight.

In that incident, two controllers escaped injury when several live rounds from the jet's 20mm cannon caused minor damage to the tower.