SABOTEURS have tried to shoot down one of the Britain's biggest model aircraft exhibitions - and left organisers scratching their heads.

The two-day Yorkshire Giant and Jet Model Spectacular starts today on the airfield at Rufforth, near York.

The event features some of the biggest remote controlled aircraft in Europe and has been held at Rufforth since 2000.

But now police have been called in following a series of incidents that organiser Dave Tappin claims amounts to deliberate attempts at sabotage.

The first incident arose when the show team discovered that road signs erected to direct people to the show had been turned round to send motorists the wrong way.

That was quickly put right but then a consignment of road cones, to help manage the traffic over the weekend, failed to turn up.

"We contracted the company involved and they told us they had had a call telling them our order had been cancelled - which it most certainly hadn't," said Mr Tappin.

Show secretary Christine Hayton was then surprised to receive 14 telephone calls and an e-mail from people wanting to know why the show had been cancelled.

"They said they had heard something on one of the radio stations but there's never been the slightest chance we were going to cancel," said Mr Tappin.

"We have reported all this to the police and we want to reassure all those who intended to come that the show is going ahead."

He added: "I'm just appalled that some person or persons would want to even attempt to stop our patrons getting to what is a popular and growing show. It's absolutely disgusting - and not a little perplexing."

A spokesman for North Yorkshire police confirmed that details of the alleged sabotage attempts had been passed on to them.