LONDON -- A Royal Air Force C-130 Hercules transport plane was shot in one of its fuel tanks while flying over East Germany to West Berlin, press reports said Sunday.
The Sunday Express and the Sunday Telegraph said the plane landed safely after the incident last month and that the British government made a protest to Soviet authorities in East Berlin.
The Foreign Office would neither confirm nor deny the reports, saying, 'It is not our practice to comment on any dealings we may have with the Russians on military operations affecting East Berlin.
The Sunday Express said the plane was hit by at least one bullet from a rifle or a machine gun and the crew alerted Gatow airfield in West Berlin for an emergency landing.
The plane landed with fuel gushing from its tank and a bullet was found inside, the reports said.
Both newspapers said it was ruled out the aircraft had strayed from its flight corridor to Berlin.
'There is no question of an official and deliberate East German attempt to bring the plane down,' the Sunday Express said, without attribution.
