ARMED police rushed to a quiet village street and were then seen removing firearms from a house.

A convoy of at least half a dozen police cars, including two major incident support teams, arrived at Lucerne Road, Elmstead Market, at approximately 4pm.

Witnesses said the occupant of a property was surrounded by officers with guns, and led out of the house before being taken away from the area.

In the minutes after he was removed, several guns were seen being taken out of the house, along with holsters and a range of boxes.

Police then left the scene shortly after 5pm.

A neighbour said: “I saw him being led away by the police.

“If anything good can come out of this incident, then it might be that he ends up getting the help he needs.”

Another neighbour said they were shocked to see so many police cars in the area.

He said: “It is usually very quiet, here barely anything happens at all.

“It is such a shock and you just have to hope nobody has ended up with any injuries of any kind.”

The police team had met at the Budgen’s convenience store Colchester Road, leading onlookers to fear about an incident at the store.

But staff confirmed there had been no problem at the shop, and had then seen the  vehicles speed down Church Road, en route to Lucerne Road.