Bones and guts in military 'horror dungeon'

Two aspiring officers at a military training centre in western Sweden have been reprimanded after building a ”horror dungeon” with bones, faeces and animal guts meant to frighten younger trainees.

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"This is a totally short-sighted and foolish prank. It is completely stupid and I do not in any circumstance condone that sort of behaviour," said Colonel Mikael Claesson, head of the Land Warfare Centre (Markstridsskolan) in Skövde to daily Aftonbladet.

The two trainee officers created the dungeon with materials belonging to the army, overnight between the 8th and 9th of December last year.

Their erection featured an altar with animal bones and was smeared with what appeared to be faeces, vomit and animal guts.

The object of the exercise was to scare the younger students, according to the Swedish armed forces, who say that the trainee officers have acted against all that their professional roles ask of them in the line of duty.

However, Claesson told the paper that the two officers in training hadn't managed to frighten any of the younger trainees.

"As far as I know, none of the other students have seen it. Staff discovered what they had done in the morning and reported it immediately."

The two men were acting in "youthful ignorance".

"They have told me that it was a case of student humour. A boyish prank. They have expressed their deepest regret to me in person and they know that what they did was inappropriate," he said to Aftonbladet.

The two men received an oral reprimand and were told that they will have 72 kronor ($11) docked from their pay daily over a period of 10 days.