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| Monday, 13 December 2004 |
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Drunken British soldier fined for 'suicide bomber' fancy dress outfit LONDON, Sunday (AFP) A drunken British soldier sparked a major security alert after leaving a regimental party dressed up as a caricature of an Arab suicide bomber, police said on Friday. Fifteen police cars, along with officers and dog handlers were called out earlier in the week by Hampshire Police after a member of the public spotted someone near an army base wearing Arab-style clothing, with a turban and false beard. The outfit, worn by an unnamed sergeant from the Coldstream Guards regiment, was completed by orange paper, wires and candles stuffed into his jacket to look like he was carrying explosives. The man had left an annual fancy-dress party on Wednesday at Aldershot Army base in southern England, held to mark the regiment's role in the Battle of Waterloo of 1815, and was walking home when police arrested him. The soldier, who was drunk at the time, was handed a small fine, police said. The Coldstream Guards were embarrassed by the incident and had called the police to assure them "there would not be any other people leaving the party dressed like that", a police spokesman said. According to a spokesman for the army base, the security alert had happened as the man walked home along a public road. Given the perceived threat from terrorism, it was "perfectly fair" for soldiers to make fun of it, he said. "What's not correct is spreading alarm by walking about like that on the public road." |
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