TopGear’s Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and Jeremy Clarkson have been forced to flee Argentina after their convoy was attacked by Falklands War veterans.

TopGear presenters’ Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May have been forced to flee Argentina and cut short the filming a ‘special episode’ after angry Falklands War veterans pelted their cars with stones. The veterans were incensed, say reports, over an ‘offensive’ number plate on Jeremy Clarkson’s vehicle.

According to a report in the UK’s Daily Mail, video footage on YouTube reportedly shows the three vehicles the presenters were traveling in speeding away with a police escort after coming under attack near the town of Tolhuin on their way to the Chilean border.

According to the Daily Mail, members of the TopGear production crew were forced to dump the three vehicles: a Lotus, Porsche and Mustang at a police checkpoint after being told another mob was waiting for them. The presenters had been airlifted out before the mobs appeared.

The attack was sparked, initially, by the number plate on the car that Jeremy Clarkson was driving, a Porsche, which was H1982 FXL. Falklands War veterans said this was a reference to the Falklands War in which the UK and Argentina went to war over the Falkland islands (a British dominion); Argentina was subsequently forced to surrender after a bitter campaign.

According to a councillor from Tolhuin, Juan Manuel Romano, the number plates on all three cars were insensitive. He said, the 269 digits on the Ford Mustang being driven by Richard Hammond was close to the 255 Britons killed during the 1982 war and that the 646 on the Lotus could be taken as reference to the 649 Argentinian casualties.

TopGear producer Andy Wilman has said the number plates weren’t chosen on purpose and that any reference was purely coincidental.

Andy Wilman, Top Gear’s executive producer, said of Clarkson’s ‘offensive’ number plate on Thursday: “Top Gear production purchased three cars for a forthcoming program.

“To suggest that this car was either chosen for its number plate, or than an alternative number plate was substituted for the original one, is completely untrue”.

The vehicles have reportedly been taken to Chile after receiving permission from the country’s Foreign Affairs ministry.