Global General

Special

Newsmaker

Asia Pacific

America

Middle East

Europe

Africa

Thousands of blank British passports stolen

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-07-29 16:53

LONDON  -- Britain's Foreign Office says thousands of blank British passports have been stolen in a raid on a delivery van.

The ministry said Tuesday that the documents were snatched as they were being delivered from northern England to a Royal Air Force base near London.

Around 3,000 passports and blank visa stickers were in the consignment. They were due to be flown out of the UK and distributed to British embassies overseas.

Britain's Identity and Passport Service said that computer chips embedded in the passports to store personal and biometric data have not been activated.

The Foreign Office said it means the documents can't be used as passports.