Armed police at Minsterley 'gun' incident

Armed police were called to a village near Shrewsbury amid fears a gun had been fired. Five people have been arrested following the incident which happened in Minsterley yesterday at about 6pm.

Nobody was hurt but police are continuing to investigate today.

Richard Ewels, West Mercia Police spokesman, said: "Five people, four men and a woman, have been arrested following an altercation in Minsterley.

"Officers attended several addresses in the village following an unconfirmed report that a gun may have been discharged."

He added the five people were today in custody at Shrewsbury Police Station after being arrested at various locations in Minsterley and Pontesbury before 9.30pm last night.

"They were arrested on suspicion of firearms offences and will be interviewed today," he said.

The police presence was noticed by a number of residents.

Bruce Bill, sub-postmaster at Minsterley Post Office, said: "A couple of customers have come in and said armed police were in the village but who they were after or what they were doing we don't know."

Parish councillor Bronwyn Evans said: "We saw the police helicopter and heard the police. There were quite a lot about in the Callow Crescent and Ash Lea area of the village."

Parish councillor Tony Bishton said: "We saw police cars and dog handlers and armed police. We were just leavi­ng the village when we saw them so we're not sure what it was about.

"There was definitely a big police presence here."