Image copyright Paderborn Police Image caption Ulrich and Magdalene Tilsner said the tank-like vehicle sounded "like a bomb exploding" as it ploughed through their fence

A British military vehicle swerved off a road in Germany into an elderly couple's garden fence, the MoD says.

The armoured Warrior infantry fighting vehicle belongs to a nearby military driving school, owned by Paderborn Garrison of the British Army.

The Army said a mechanical fault caused the vehicle to veer off the road.

Ulrich Tilsner, 67, from Paderborn, said it ploughed through his garden and stopped just before it hit his house - leaving him and his wife "in shock".

Mr Tilsner's granddaughter Stephanie Ney told German newspaper Neue Westfalische: "My grandfather called me and said, 'I'm a bit late, I have a tank in the garden.'"

She said she rushed to her grandparents' house, where she found "a tank in the middle of the hedge and soldiers everywhere, and our dog was barking furiously".

The Ministry of Defence said no one was harmed in the incident.

A spokeswoman confirmed that a British Warrior infantry fighting vehicle from the military school at Paderborn Garrison crashed into a garden on Tuesday morning damaging a fence and a shrub.

She said the incident was caused by a technical fault when "something came loose", and that an investigation was under way.