Turkish paramilitary troops have destroyed a giant cannabis field near the Iranian border, uprooting more than two billion plants, security sources said yesterday.

The operation - described by one official as "the largest single seizure of cannabis" in Turkey - began last week following intelligence about cannabis cultivation in a mountainous area outside the village of Hasanbey in Van province. The troops came across hundreds of acres planted with cannabis and hundreds of soldiers were called in to destroy the field.

The clearance took five days and more than two billion plants were uprooted, the sources said.

The crop would have yielded about 50 tonnes of hashish worth some €24 million, they said. An investigation was launched to find the perpetrators.

Cannabis cultivation is widespread in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey, where the rough mountainous terrain makes it easier for growers to evade the law.

The province of Van also lies on a major route of heroin smuggling from Afghanistan to the West.