Local police said he had commandeered a 36-tonne T-55 battle tank armed with 100m cannon able to hit targets 10 miles away.

They explained that the tank seems to have been taken by a mechanic while his workshop repaired the trailer being used to transport it.

“When the 49-year-old man was supposed to load the tank back on to the trailer, he decided instead to take some passengers for a ride on the streets of Pajeczna, probably guided by whimsy, or rather by alcohol and a lack of foresight,” the police force in Lodz said.

T-55s have been deployed in numerous armed conflicts since the later part of the twentieth century.