A band of rocket enthusiasts are under fire after a missile they sent zooming a mile into the Somerset sky thudded to earth at more than 100 miles per hour – just feet from a family home.

Phil Major and his son Chris with the rocket at his farm

A band of rocket enthusiasts are under fire after a missile they sent zooming a mile into the Somerset sky thudded to earth at more than 100 miles per hour — just 12 feet from a family home.

The blue, finned, 12ft probe was programmed to split in two with each section parachuting gently to earth, but something went wrong and the rear end came hurtling down without a parachute.

Shocked villager Martin Corkish, of Clewer, near Wedmore, said: "I was working on the extension to our home when I heard a whistling sound in the air and seven feet of rocket landed in my garden, missing myself and our house, where my wife and young children aged two years and nine months were inside, by 12 feet. Four feet of the missile is embedded in my garden."

Meanwhile, half a mile away at Glencot Cottage, Wedmore, farmer's wife Wendy Major and son Chris, 16, were amazed when the other half of the rocket parachuted into their field of cows.

The remains were bleeping and spilling out wire. Mrs Major, 45, then carried it 100 yards across the field to the farmyard.

Mr Major, 45, said yesterday: "When I came back from milking there was this rocket in the middle of the yard.

"I said 'it's bleeping, has anybody phoned the police?' Someone phoned the police and they said it was not an explosive and had a tracking device and had been traced to a man from Canterbury. Surely questions should be asked about national security if these things can be fired off like this?" ...

via A band of rocket enthusiasts are under fire after a missile they sent zooming a mile into the Somerset sky thudded to earth at more than 100 miles per hour – just feet from a family home..