Ananova:

A US man has been arrested after a speed camera was shot three times with a high-powered rifle.

Police in Knoxville, Tennessee were on routine patrol in the early hours when they heard sounds "consistent with gunfire".

They searched the area and saw a man in a people carrier behaving "very suspiciously", reports the Daily Telegraph.

When the officers stopped and searched the van they found a high-calibre hunting rifle on the floor of the vehicle.

When the driver Clifford Clark III, 47, was questioned, the arresting officer said he stated that he "didn't want to say what he was doing there because he didn't want to get into trouble".

The police subsequently found a red-light camera that had been hit with three high-calibre rounds. Clark was charged with felony vandalism and reckless endangerment.

"There's neighbourhoods all around that area," Captain Gordon Catlett told the Knoxville News Sentinel.

"I guarantee you he wouldn't want someone shooting a high-powered rifle around his house," he added.

Capt Catlett went on to say that he had no record of Mr Clark ever having received a fine because of the camera.

In Britain, speed cameras have been beaten, burned and hacked down by angry motorists but not shot at, so far.