An embarrassed Jaguar Cars Limited found itself apologising to the Queen after a swastika and pornographic magazines were reportedly found in her new car, the British television news organisation ITN said on its website.

ITN said that the magazines were found in a body cavity and the swastika was painted behind a seat panel. Both were discovered by Jaguar’s own staff while the car was being bomb-proofed after assembly.

Jaguar told ITN that it was taking the situation very seriously and conducting a thorough investigation.

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“Jaguar has apologised to the Royal Household for any embarrassment already sustained,” the company told ITN.

ITN said that the ‘factory extras’ would not normally have been discovered but for the fact that several panels had to be removed from the Queen’s car for the bomb-proofing work to be carried out.

A worker at the Coventry plant in the English Midlands, where the car was made, has agreed to resign over the incident, ITN added.

A Jaguar spokesman told the television news service that the company did not comment on cars made for VIPs due to security reasons.

But an unnamed Jaguar employee told ITN: “It is one of those old traditions where people used to write things behind the seat panel of cars and they were never discovered unless there was an accident. But on this occasion it was not very funny.”

The man added that the tradition was common when he was an apprentice, ITN said.

“The chaps go to an awful lot of trouble to do the car, they are there all day – what else have they got to do?” the employee said.

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman told ITN that it was for Jaguar to comment on the incident.

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