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An SAS officer was accidentally shot with live ammunition and had to be sent to hospital during a routine mock operation at the GCHQ offices.

The Special Air Services (SAS), sent in by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), were conducting a simulated operation in January at the headquarters in Cheltenham with guns that should have only been loaded with training ammunition.

An inquiry in to the incident has been instigated by the police. It has since been passed to the Health & Safety Executive, where it currently sits.

The SAS used the famous doughnut offices to simulate a regular office environment.

Two opposing SAS teams were sent in for the mock operation. The first team invaded the base and took hostages and the second team worked to rescue the "kidnapped staff" and regain control of the facilities.

Training ammunition was supposed to be being used during the operation that saw 50 workers from the GCHQ drafted in to play the role of workers. However one special armed operative fired off live ammunition at a fellow agent, reported The Times.

The injured operative was wounded in the arm, sent to hospital and is still recovering 12 weeks later.

No officers were hurt but they were close by when the shot fired.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

The exercise was carried out purely to simulate an attack on a normal office environment and was not done to prepare for any sort of specific threat.

An official spokesman from GCHQ refused to comment on the incident.

The MoD also remained tight-lipped on the incident. An official spokesperson said: "We do not comment on Special Forces."

An insider from the special forces told The Times: "It’s military dark humour but it was shrugged off in a way. It’s one of those things that very occasionally, unfortunately happens.”