Military exercise wakes up residents

People living on the south side of Glasgow were woken by the sound of Apache and Chinook helicopters flying at low level over the suburbs in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Crime writer and broadcaster Theresa Talbot said: “Our house was literally shaking. It was 4.15 in the morning.

“I could hear the roof tiles and masonry trembling.”

The Ministry of Defence in London said an exercise codenamed Chameleon had begun on February 23 and will continue until next Friday, March 19.

A spokesman added: “These essential operational training events are being designed to ensure that a variety of Armed Forces personnel continue to be ready for global operations.”

Some residents of Thornliebank in East Renfrewshire managed to film a short convoy of the attack helicopters flying through the dark.

On Thursday night, residents of Edinburgh reported two aircraft circling the Lothians, Fife and the Firth of Forth overnight.

The craft were identified on the Snake54 flight tracking website as small propeller planes, which took off from Leuchars air base near St Andrews at 9.23pm and landed back there at 4am after performing a series of manoeuvres.

Tesco has responded to investors calling for it to boost sales of healthy food and drink amid growing evidence that the UK’S obesity problem has worsened during the Covid-19 crisis.

A consortium of investors filed in February what is thought to be the first nutrition-based shareholder resolution at a FTSE 100 company.

The company said it now aims to increase healthy products as a proportion of total sales to 65%, from the current level of 58%.