Russian War Craft Lands on Crowded Tourist Beach [VIDEO]

Russian beachgoers enjoying a day at the seaside got a shock when a hulking military craft interrupted the holiday vibe by landing in a storm of spray and noise.

The amphibious landing vehicle slowly approached the beach in the western city of Kaliningrad, sending water high into the air, before mounting the sand - and dwarfing everyone around it.

The event was captured on video, and in images which capture the vast size of the grey amphibious landing craft and the stark contrast with the stunned onlookers.

The Russian military claimed it was expecting the beach to be deserted and not filled with holidaymakers because the beauty spot is located in a firing zone.

"Docking at the beach is a regular practice, what we don't know is what people were doing at the beach, which is within the military firing range," an official at the Ministry of Defense told the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.

Baltic fleet spokesman Andrey Bespaly said: "After the drill was over, the cordon was removed and the ship sailed back to its base."