A WILTSHIRE Police Land Rover and trailer have been trashed after officers left them parked outside a supermarket in the middle of a Bristol riot.

The £100,000 Land Rover Discovery and its trailer were outside Tesco in the Stokes Croft area, which has been at the centre of community unrest.

On Thursday there were yet further riots in the area.

The vehicle was caught in the crossfire and the cost of the damage, which is reported to be severe, is still be calculated.

Some 60 Wiltshire officers were drafted in to help Avon and Somerset Police counter demonstrations against the controversial Tesco Express.

They took two police support unit (PSU) vans and the special Land Rover and trailer, which the force had only recently taken delivery of.

While the Wiltshire officers went to the aid of their Bristol colleagues, they left the van parked outside the Tesco store which was then stormed by hundreds of protesters.

Tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage was done to the store and eight police officers were injured, though none of the Wiltshire contingent was hurt. Nine people were arrested.

A spokesman for Wiltshire Police said: “We give mutual aid to Avon and Somerset Police and when they called us up we sent 60 officers, a couple of PSU vehicles and the Land Rover Discovery and trailer.

“During the unrest the Land Rover and its trailer were both very badly damaged.”

The riots broke out after police raided a property being used by squatters opposed to the opening of the store.

The raid was carried out because officers said they feared the store was to be petrol bombed.

Rioters hurled chairs and bricks and tried to set fire to the glass-fronted store while two security guards were trapped inside.

A hoard of petrol bombs were earlier recovered from a notorious squat opposite.

A second series of clashes took place at the store when a demonstration which started on Thursday turned violent in the early hours of Friday.

Both officers and protesters were injured when rocks, bottles and other missiles were thrown. Police made a futher 30 arrests.

Yesterday, officers from Wiltshire police were still in Bristol supporting the operation.