Marines lost in lap-dance bar spark Kosovo alert

A DRUNKEN and naked Royal Marine was found entwined around a pole with a lap dancer while two other soldiers were slumped semiconscious over a table in a seedy Kosovo bar in one of the most dangerous areas of Pristina, sparking a full-scale security alert.

The trio went missing after a Christmas concert in the capital and officers from the Quick Reaction Force, based in the war-ravaged country where tensions between Serbs, Kosovans and peacekeeping soldiers remain high, feared they had been kidnapped.

The Ministry of Defence in London was alerted and other soldiers ordered to comb the town - a centre of Serb resistance during the 1999 conflict - to find the men after they slipped through their own security cordon at 10pm and went on a drinking spree.

The men from 45 Commando were eventually found unarmed and in full uniform, in the early hours of the morning. They were later fined heavily and sent home in disgrace to their base in Arbroath, Scotland.

The incident began when 300 soldiers from the force were escorted from their base to the concert in the town in armoured trucks.

They were ordered to stick to the "two cans rule" - two beers only in case they were called to action.

One Army source said: "We all had a good night - no one knew that anyone was missing until one of these lads was needed. All hell broke loose. Everyone thought they had been kidnapped.

"They took their lives in their hands going into the city in uniform, in darkness and without protection.

"There are snipers all over the place. It's amazing they weren't shot.

And they put others in danger as well, having to go and look for them.

It's volatile out here."

An MoD spokesman said: "I can confirm three soldiers were sent home after they were discovered in a lap-dancing bar. They were sent home with a black mark on their careers. The incident is closed."

Meanwhile, 15 soldiers from the Light Dragoons face dismissal in one of the Army's biggest drug busts after their urine tested positive for cannabis and ecstasy following a dawn swoop by military police on their barracks in Swan-ton Morely in Norfolk.

All 500 men in the regiment are confined to barracks today and sniffer dogs are to search the camp.

"This is a day of great shame. Some of the lads busted said they took drugs because they were bored," said an Army source.

"The will all be kicked out unless they can plead very exceptional circumstances."

The Army has a zero drug tolerance policy.

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