Italian army accused of fowl play after tank accidentally fires rounds into chicken farm

The Italian army is in a flap after one of its tanks accidentally fired shells into a chicken farm during a night exercise, killing dozens of birds.

The rounds were fired by a 27-tonne Centauro (Centaur) armoured vehicle during training on a range near the town of Pordenone in the northern region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

They ripped through the wall of a metal shed, causing part of it to collapse.

The shells were blanks and so did not explode but around 50 chickens were killed in the shed, which lies a few hundred yards from the Cellina army training area.

The crew of the eight-wheeled tank was apparently unaware of their error on Wednesday night and the damage was only discovered the next morning when the owner of the farm, Edoardo Da Re, turned up for work.

The mishap was lampooned mercilessly on social media, with memes featuring chickens wearing army helmets and adaptations of images from the animated film Chicken Run.

Some of the apparent damage

A fake Wikipedia page was set up, dedicated to what was dubbed “the Battle of Cellina”, with the outcome hailed as an “Italian strategic victory”.

“The chickens were collateral damage in the war game,” one Italian newspaper commented.

While social media had a field day, the consequences could have been serious — the farm is near the small town of Vivaro.

Two investigations have been launched, one by the military and another by civilian prosecutors.

“No one heard anything at the time — the military exercise area is just a few hundred yards away and we hardly pay any attention to the sound of shots,” an employee of the farm told Corriere della Sera newspaper.

“It happened at around 9pm, when the chickens were sleeping. We’re still cleaning up and assessing the damage.”

The four armoured vehicles involved in the exercise were impounded by investigators who want to identify which fired the offending rounds.

The Centauro is an Italian-made tank which has been deployed by the Italian military all over the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

It has a crew of four and can travel at speeds of up to 110kmh on roads. Equipped with a 105mm cannon, it is more than capable of taking on a chicken.