VIDEO UPDATE: Builders who saw armed police incident praise officers
When Bradley King, 23, and Louie Daly, 27, woke up this morning, they thought it would be a normal day at work.
But little did they know they would be eyewitnesses to armed police surrounding a property in Salisbury Road, doors down from the roof they were fixing.
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Hide AdSussex Police confirmed the armed officer presence was because of reports of a house filled with several weapons, and the road was closed for a few hours before officers reopened it at around 3pm. Click here for the original story.
The two carpenters from Bear Walter Construction said they were initially worried for their safety when the police closed the road – but their response showed everything was under control.
Lead carpenter Louie said he did think ‘what if?’ at first: “It gets your heard turning doesn’t it? We are on the roof and we can’t see what is below us and it is crawling with police, blocking off the road.”
He believed he saw officers with MP5 submachine guns walking down the road, but ‘there was no shouting going on’.
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Hide AdHe said: “The police looked like they were well on top of it. They didn’t look panicked. They were keeping everyone cool so no-one was really worried.
“Obviously there is a school right there so they want to keep everyone calm.”
Bradley echoed his colleague’s comments, saying police kept ‘calm and cool’ and added it was ‘more excitement’ than the typical day at work.
They were both surprised to hear that police were there due to reports of several weapons in the house.
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Hide AdLouie said he had seen police raids ‘a few times doing what we do’: “We are out in working class areas, building roofs, building houses. I have seen a fair bit of it.”
Sussex Police could not confirm currently if anyone has been arrested or if any weapons were seized.