London, UK

Official documents for one of the Royal Navy's £1.3 billion 'hunter killer' submarines were apparently found in the toilet of a Wetherspoons pub. The incident prompted the Royal Navy to launch an investigation into the matter. 

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The Sun stated that documents containing information regarding the HMS Anson were found umped in a loo at the Furness Railway in Cumbria. The found materials are generally utilised by submariners training in the isolation and depressurisation of system components as they learn about the inner workings of the nuclear-powered submarine.

A Royal Navy spokesman reportedly said, “These are generic training documents that carry no classified information. However, we take all security matters extremely seriously and will investigate the circumstances of their discovery.”

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According to a source cited in the publication, the pub was crowded when the files marked "official sensitive" were found on the floor of a cubicle. The BAE Systems shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness, where the submarine has been seen before, is close to the Furness Railway.

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HMS Anson is the fifth of the new Astute-class attack submarines to enter the fleet of the Royal Navy. According to the Royal Navy's website, the vessels are the "largest, most advanced, and most powerful attack submarines" it has ever employed. They are also equipped with Tomahawk missile launchers.

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The report citing a naval insider said, “These documents enable submariners and contractors to understand how systems interact. They do not detail how they work, just that they exist.”

They also stated that the files only contained rudimentary schematics of the onboard systems, with no explanation of how they function.

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However, a source told The Sun that the "official sensitive" files were found in the loo along with a Royal Navy lanyard. "It was lucky a Russian spy didn't find them," it added. 

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