ARMED police were called to a Liden flat as officers attempted to arrest a suspected shoplifter.

Patrol cars driving on blue lights sped into Galsworthy Close shortly after 8.30pm on Sunday.

They were seen going into a flat on the cul-de-sac – apparently in an attempt to arrest a man wanted for shoplifting offences.

One woman, 26, who lives on the street, said: “Ten Old Bill stormed in.”

Earlier in the day, residents reported seeing “four riot vans” and “four police cars” – with the police waiting inside their cars.

The officers left a colleague in a police van outside one block of flats on the close. Another police officer joined her at around 7.15pm.

A Wiltshire Police spokeswoman said: “Officers attended an address in Galsworthy Close, Liden, on Sunday afternoon between 4pm and 9.30pm looking for a man who is wanted for shoplifting offences.

“He was not at the property, so no arrests were made.”

Speaking on Sunday night, residents said that police were not a typical sight on the street – although they had seen a rising number of crimes over the past year.

One girl, who spoke to the Advertiser, said her neighbour had interrupted heroin users in the stairwell - apparently injecting drugs. Another woman said thieves had broken into her car. She said: “There’s always trouble. There’s always vandalism.”

A mother, who lived on the opposite end of Galsworthy Close, said that police officers had knocked on her door to enquire about laundry stolen from the garden of one of the houses on the road.

The latest police raid comes two weeks after the army’s bomb squad were called to the close.

Police said soldiers from the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team were called in on December 5, taking away an inactive artillery shell from the flat.

A resident who watched as the bomb squad emerged from the flats said: “We were very frightened.”