Israeli authorities are trying to work out how a heavily armoured, but unarmed, tank was stolen from a military training zone after finding it discarded in a scrapyard.

The Israeli Merkava 2 tank disappeared from a training area near the coastal city of Haifa in northern Israel, the Israeli army said on Wednesday.

The training zone is closed to the public when in use, but is otherwise accessible to passers-by.

Police said the 65-ton tank was found abandoned in a scrapyard near a military base.

In a video from the scene, the army green tank lies alongside rusty scraps of metal and other industrial cast-offs.

The army said the Merkava 2 was decommissioned years ago and was unarmed.

It said it had been used most recently as a “stationary vehicle for soldiers’ exercises”.