SECRET documents detailing the government's emergency response to a nuclear attack have revealed officials had no plans for a mass civilian evacuation - but a strategy was in place for saving treasured works of art.

According to the 30-year-old files - described by historians as the "most secret" to be released by the National Archive at Kew to date - Russia had so many nuclear warheads trained on Britain that around 12 million citizens would have been wiped out.

People would have been urged to stay indoors while all radio and television were to be replaced by an emergency BBC broadcast telling them: "There is nothing to be gained by trying to get away".

While members of the public would not be offered a shelter in nuclear bunkers, the government had devised a strategy for saving the country's art treasures.

Masterpieces from galleries in Edinburgh and London would have been transported to Wales, where they would have been stashed in a slate quarry.

Meanwhile, the prime minister and top officials would have been taken to government bunkers manned by civil servants.

According to the 1975 Government War Book, much of which remains classified, a single, looped broadcast would have taken over the airwaves and television.

Parliament would have fast-tracked emergency legislation to give the government wide-sweeping powers to cover transport, manpower, communications and food.

Historian Peter Hennessy told the BBC the documents on the preparations for a nuclear attack were the most secret he had ever seen. "These were the Crown Jewels of genuine official secrecy ... because you didn't want the other side to get your war plans," he said.

"Also, the degree of alarm for the civilian population, in relatively tranquil times, that a leakage of this would have produced would have been extraordinary."

Much of the file remains secret, except for the headings of the 15 chapters.

The contingency plan would have applied at any time up until 1989.

One civilian who was privy to some of the classified information was Peter Donaldson, the BBC newsreader, who pre-recorded a broadcast that would have been run continuously in the event of a nuclear holocaust.

"It felt really spooky," he said. "Here I was talking about the end of the world as we know it."

Mr Donaldson was made to give back the transcript after he had read it for the recording. He would have told listeners: "This is the wartime broadcast service. This country has been attacked with nuclear weapons."

People would have been urged to "stay tuned, stay calm and stay in your own house".

By leaving their own homes, they would face great danger, being left without food and without protection - unlike the national art treasures, which would have been taken to safety.

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