Hong Kong's Saracen armoured police cars on patrol in small-town England
They were a familiar sight in the 1970s and now a couple of Hong Kong's Saracen Mark II armoured cars are back in action, as big boys' toys in small-town England.
It was in the unlikely setting of a notorious road junction in southwest England called the Magic Roundabout that 9.5 tonnes of Hong Kong history came to the bemused attention of the police one Friday night.
The astonishment of the officers in Swindon was understandable. After all, it isn't every day that a hulking blue armoured car, "armed" and with Chinese markings, brings two lanes of a busy intersection to a standstill.
On board the marooned vehicle were a party of teenage girls on their way to a school prom and the somewhat flustered owner of the Saracen Mark II armoured car, surgeon Phill Burgess, who had bought it months earlier.
"The girls on board were the daughters of people who drink in The Plough," 62-year-old Burgess explains, referring to his local pub, behind which he keeps his Saracen. "We broke down 10 yards from where we were supposed to take them. When we broke down I rang the wife and said, 'Guess what? We've broken down on the Magic Roundabout.'
"She then texted my daughter, Sarah, who's up in Lancashire and said, 'Your dad's broken down with his damn tank on the Magic Roundabout. My daughter then put it on Facebook and said, 'To all my mates in Swindon, don't go near the centre, because my father's down there blocking the road with his tank.'
"She got a message back from her friend Jess, who is in Swindon police. She said, 'Yes we know - we're on the way.' The police turned up and started putting cones around us because we were blocking two lanes of traffic, and one of the coppers came up and said, 'Are you Sarah's dad?' and then said into his radio, 'Yes, Jess, it's him.' After that, the police escorted us back home in case we broke down again."