British soldiers seen firing guns on suburban French streets

British troops shot machine guns in a suburban French town - to the bemusement of locals.

Soldiers, thought to be the infamous Gurkha regiment, are seen taking firing positions and even recovering fallen comrades in Cahors, a small town in southern France.

One bizarre scene sees soldiers firing a heavy gun down a street, while a lady walks by on her phone followed by an elderly woman.

The surreal sights and rattling gunfire last week were part of Orion 2023, a major French Joint Forces Command exercise aimed at reinforcing operational readiness and involving 12,000 service people.

Last Thursday (8 March), the RAF reported flying two sorties of an Atlas C1 transport aircraft to insert a company of 2 Royal Gurkha Rifles and their equipment to integrate with the French Marine 8th Parachute Regiment for the tactical, combined arms exercise.

Bystander Sami Salmi, who captured the scenes, said: "Operation Orion hit the city of Cahors on March 9 and March 10.

"The soldiers fired into the town with weapons, and they had vehicles that were in place on all the bridges of the city and the entry points.

"Helicopters also circled very low over the city."

First run in 2021, Orion 23 is described by the RAF as a major exercise for France’s armed forces. They say it provides "the perfect opportunity for multinational, combined arms training in a scenario developed by NATO that exercises all the way from planning to high end war fighting".

Planned to be realistic and testing, the exercise spans across different geographical terrains.

Orion 23 will equally assess the cross-governmental response to crises, outside the sphere of operation for the Armed Forces.

Gurkhas are known to be as fearless in combat as they are good natured in daily life. They are renowned for their loyalty, professionalism and bravery.

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[dennissalisbury]

This is a military training exercise and they are shooting blanks, not live ammo.

[Bloke-in-Stoke]

Happens all the time over there. The wife met a tank coming down the lane near our house close to Cahors a few years back... the tank had to back up and let her pass, what a star. :o)

[GhostRanger]

This is common all over the world. The US Special Forces conduct a regular unconventional warfare exercise in a large civilian area of North Carolina dubbed "Pineland." The locals love it an often serve as role players. The civilian population just goes about their daily busy as the exercise takes place all around them.

[paulaharte]

I love how the locals were just walking down the street like everything is normal

[davidmccann]

We were going over to France to do this 20 years ago. On one occasion I was taking up a position behind a stone wall and an elderly French woman came out of the house to ask me what's happening.

[grena]

How does a newspaper manage to misuse the word 'infamous'?

[pzujmjy]

It’s actually pretty smart to train in a real city to prepare for urban warfare.

[bloomfieldyes]

I don't get if they're trying to make this seem bad or good? Or simply informing us. It's awesome imo.

[tpeterson]

Gurkhas are some of the best warriors the world has ever seen

[vernongoodey]

The Foreign Legion train every year in these areas. It used to happen in Church Crookham near Aldershot UK. when I was a lad in 1973

[solaireofastora]

The amount of civilians wondering wtf is going on😂😂

[yutopya]

Interesting. In Germany, such an exercise in public would be impossible due to a number of reasons, first of all, due to all the strict safety regulations for handling weapons and ammunition, even if only using ex ammo. Seeing those bystanders walk by casually and filming it all, makes me wonder if there are any safety regulations whatsoever 😂

[felixleong]

France : WTF Britian. Why are your troops shooting in my town??

Britain : Gonna keep the tradition of us fighting each other in literally every century alive my friend.

Edit : There is literally a war in the reply section. I hereby invite fellow tea drinkers and baguette enjoyers to join the battle haha.

[libellula]

Lol we were all informed this was happening! All over France including beach landings on the coast and the Mediterranean.

[romeo.ardael]

Imagine walking down to your local bakery and coming across this scene in the morning :D

[thonbrocket]

I remember the good old days when the Telegraph could report accurately and professionally on a military story.

[caro_Uk]

Strange statement🙄. The Gurkas are not 'infamous' - they are 'famous'.

[atg]

Don’t they do this every year? I seen a video of them doing it at night. They notify the population and it’s really a thing. It’s training.

[puddingsimon]

We had a storm beaching drill with our storm boats on the Danube in Austria once, we where cruising along the river, made a sharp 90degre turn towards the beach and full spped towards it, landed on it, and one after another 8 soldiers per boat fully geard helmet, backpack, plate carrier (3 boats in total) stormed on the beach and into the bushwork and forest and took a big half circle like shape position for a few moments and then back on the boats in the Reverse order as we left it. All while just 20 meters next to us where 5 locals having a relaxing time on the beach, watching the funny green boats on the Danube, untill the turned towards them

[BritishPaz]

That yellow thing on the end of their rifle barrels is a blank firing adapter. Used to fire blank rounds for training exercises