THE FOREIGN Office have admitted a `serious breach of security' after thousands of blank passports and visas were stolen from an unlocked white van in Greater Manchester when the driver nipped into a shop to buy a chocolate bar.

An urgent investigation was underway today into how the documents were plundered as they were being transported to an RAF base near London.

Police said the vehicle was `a normal Citroen van with no extra protection'.

The driver and a delivery man had left 3M Security and Printing Systems Factory, where the documents are produced, on Gorse Street, Chadderton, Oldham.

But the raid was carried out less than a mile away after they stopped at a newsagents.

The Manchester Evening News can reveal that the driver nipped into Yogi's News, on Long Lane at 6.40am on Monday.

He was buying a newspaper and chocolate bar when the raider jumped into the driver's seat and forced the head of the passenger against the dashboard.

The van was driven off with the delivery man on board before being abandoned nearby.

The delivery man has told police that he did not know how many raiders were involved because he kept his head down and when it was safe to look up realised the documents - a total of 3,000 passports and visas in 24 parcels - had been taken.

Foreign Office officials said today they had launched an `urgent investigation' into security arrangements.

A Home Office spokesman cranked up the pressure by saying that their policy was always to use `secure armoured vehicles'.

The Home Office would usually transport passports destined for use in this country.

But the stolen documents were going to be flown out to embassies across the world - and therefore were the responsibility of the Foreign Office.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman told the M.E.N. said the passports, containing computer chips, had security features that would render them useless on the black market.

"We can confirm that a van was hijacked while en route from a production site in Manchester," she said. "It contained 24 parcels of [blank] passports and visa vignettes.

"Both the passports and the vignettes have security features to prevent them being used.

"This is the first incident of its kind and we are carrying out an immediate review of security.

"We have a contract with a security firm. Drivers are not allowed to make unauthorised stops."

The spokeswoman added that the Identity and Passport Service (IPS), part of the Home Office, had taken `further measures' to prevent the documents being used.

Former Scotland Yard fraud officer Tom Craig has said that the passports would be worth around £1,700 each on the black market.

An investigation has also been launched by Greater Manchester Police into the raid.

An IPS spokesman said: "Our high-tech security features mean that the passports are unusable."

The spokesman declined to comment on the visa stamps.

But he added: "It is IPS practice for such documents to always be transported by armoured secure vehicle."

A spokeswoman for 3M Security and Printing Systems said they had no comment to make.

Shop owner Yogesh Patel described how the driver had come in for a chocolate bar and a newspaper.

He said: "I didn't know what had happened until he came back in about an hour later with a policeman."

Earlier this month the M.E.N. reported that a holidaymaker was able to fly home from Turkey using a stranger's passport after staff at four security checkpoints failed to spot the difference.

Anyone with information on the raid should call police on 0161 856 8951.