Warplane fires on bus and car in target blunder

A Japanese fighter jet training on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido missed targets on a firing range and instead hit a car and a bus parked nearby, apparently with machine-gun rounds, police said today.

There were no injuries, according to police spokesman Akira Yamazaki.

Yamazaki said the bus and the car were parked outside the range that the Self-Defence Forces fighter was using for fire practice. He had no further details, and said the incident was being investigated.

Japan’s Kyodo News Service said the plane, an F-4, fired 20mm rounds into the vehicles on the ground.