RAF Harrier jump jets have blown up the world's biggest drug haul in Afghanistan by dropping three 1,000lb bombs on a 237-ton stash of cannabis.

The haul - worth £225million and weighing more than 30 double-decker buses - was unearthed by the Special Boat Service and local commandos.

The drugs were first stuffed into grain sacks and buried in six trenches covering an area the size of two football pitches.

Attack: Smoke pours from a bombed trench full of drugs and, below, an RAF Harrier jet

Harriers then flew over the site near Kandahar and dropped their deadly payload.

Officials believe the area - near to the Taliban stronghold of Quetta in Pakistan - was turning dried cannabis leaves into heroin.

After the attack from Kandahar airfield, troops set fire to the remains with petrol.

Mind-boggling: Inside one of six trenches concealing a record 236 tons of hash and 2.5 tons of opium

Up in flames: The third of three illegal drug caches after being hit by 1000lb bombs from RAF Harrier jump jets then set ablaze by troops

Five tons of opium, worth £2million, was also found and destroyed.

Three people were arrested.

The previous record haul was 80 tons of cocaine in Columbia in 1998.

Afghanistan's deputy Interior Minister, Lieutenant General Abdul Hadi Khalid, said yesterday: 'This is a new world record in the global war on drugs.'