Amnesty unveils rocket launcher

An amnesty programme designed to reduce the number of illegal and unwanted guns in British Columbia, Canada has also turned up an unexpected weapon -- a rocket launcher.

An elderly Vancouver-area woman turned in the weapon that she and her husband had kept hidden in their attic after discovering it while renovating their house in 1973, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Wednesday.

The couple had been too afraid to tell anyone about the weapon earlier, police said.

The month-long programme in Canada's westernmost province allows people to give police unregistered or prohibited guns without threat of prosecution. It has produced more than 1,000 firearms in its first three weeks.