A police vehicle has lost 1,000 rounds of live ammunition, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has informed.

It happened at about 10 miles north of Basingstoke.

The unmarked vehicle was travelling from the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) site at Burghfield to Aldermaston last Monday.

Police were alerted after a resident saw 9mm live bullets scattered over the road.

However, police have not been able to retrieve all the bullets. The area was cordoned off and sniffer dogs were deployed to find the missing ammunition.

An MOD spokesperson said: "We can confirm that a quantity of small calibre ammunition fell from a Ministry of Defence Police vehicle while in transit on Monday afternoon.

"We immediately took steps to recover the ammunition and quickly accounted for the vast majority of rounds.

"All necessary measures to ensure the safety of the public have been taken and work continues to recover the remaining few rounds."