Stratton siege witnesses tells of hearing gunshots

PEOPLE living close to the scene of last night's armed siege thought the gunshots were fireworks.

Praba Nataragan, lives in of The Fields, just around the corner from Darling Close where the incident took place.

She said: "We were sitting eating dinner by the windows.

"Suddenly we heard a sound like fireworks and we thought 'but it's not the time for fireworks'.

"Then it stopped for some time then we heard a few more.

"It really puzzled us.

"We thought it was firecrackers, then we read what was happening online and it was so scary.

"You don't expect that round here. Thank God we didn't go out for movies last night because we often park our car in Darling Close."

Arre Rahj who lives on Cameron Close, which faces Darling Close, said: "I was watching from my room around 8pm.

"There was about 12 police cars.

"Within a flash, one officer was running across the road. You could see the armed police.

"Someone was shouting, you could hear the police dogs.

"It lasted for a while.

"The police response was very good, very fast."

'We thought the gunshots were firecrackers'