A young mum today told of her fears as police armed with submachine guns swooped on Basildon's Festival Leisure Park as part of an undercover operation.
Sharon Andrews was returning home from a tennis match at the David Lloyd Leisure Centre, in Pipps Hill Road South, on Wednesday when she came across a line of traffic queuing to leave the area.
As she approached the front of the line, Mrs Andrews said she was shocked to be confronted by a group of plain clothed police officers armed with Heckler and Koch MP5 submachine guns.
She said: "I had my 13-month-old daughter Elle in the back of my car. I was sitting behind a supermarket lorry in a queue when the armed police opened the back of the truck with their guns pointing inside. It was quite harrowing and scary."
Mrs Andrews, of Hilton Road, Canvey, said she had tried to ask one of the uniformed police officers on the scene what was happening, but that she had not received an answer.
Essex Police are still remaining tight-lipped about why the armed officers were deployed to the leisure park at around 2.30pm on Wednesday.
A spokesman said: "The operation is still ongoing and we don't want to jeopardise what we are trying to do, so we don't want to make any further comment at this stage."
Two men were arrested at the scene and questioned, but were later released without charge.
Published Friday July 2, 2004
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