A bit of excitement, police with machine guns have just sealed off our street!

[nickymanchester]

We're just over visiting our DD. She lives in a street full of terraced houses and three police SUVs have pulled up and blocked the street.

Then five policemen got out and suited up. They have the lot on - helmets, machine guns etc and are standing outside a house about 50 yards down the street.

No idea what is happening but this is really just an ordinary street - not used to seeing machine guns round this way!

Exciting!
The most excitement I ever had from a police incident was when the house across the road and a few up from me was raided in the middle of the night - that was drug related though and I don't remember seeing any significant weaponry.

Another night I heard a commotion across the road (different house) and it was 2 people screaming, one sounded like a man (but was apparently not) and appeared to be attacking the front door with an axe Called the police and they came out in stealth mode - no lights or sirens - to try and catch them, but they'd legged it by then. Apparently the "weapon" they were using was a steering lock, not an axe, and it was an exGF having a jealous rage fit.

However I do also remember the first time I saw armed police in the UK - not long after the Twin Towers episode, and I had to go to the airport to collect someone. Saw 6 armed police, in full gear with submachine guns, coming up the stairs towards me - that was actually quite shocking, seeing the guns up close like that. Even though I've spent years and years seeing them on tv, it just doesn't convey the same amount of menace as seeing them in real life.

@AOwlAOwlAOwl

We had armed police come into our house a few years ago. We weren't in trouble but there was an incident in the neighbourhood and they all trooped through the house and into the garden.

They were all really well built like a rugby sevens team

I accidentally locked police officers in my garden once. They had come mob handed because someone ( me) had expressed concern over the welfare of a neighbour. A couple of them climbed over my back fence and in my excitement I accidentally locked the door behind them then went out to the front where it was a bit busier as the dog handlers had arrived - they didn’t stay. I was having a chat to one of the officers when he got a call on his radio. The fence climbing police had had a look through ndns kitchen windows , and now wanted to come back so would I mind unlocking my back door to let them through.

@nickymanchester

Forgot to say, DD has been talking to one of her neighbours. They say that somebody has been taken hostage.

This is the point at which you should've asked for this thread to be deleted, especially as you "seriously do wonder if it was a domestic violence situation that turned really nasty?"

This 'Bit of excitement' that's keeping you so entertained you feel the need to share on a public forum, is someone else's life

we had a farmer waving his rifle around allegedly, police called, we were on holiday but the neighbours told us about it gleefully

This happened around the corner from us, the police broke the door down and went in, the guy inside ran up to the attic, punched a hole in the roof and climbed out. He sat up there for 10 hours, chucking roof tiles down at the police, before giving himself up.

In our quiet little cul de sac we once had great excitement when the boys in blue came to next door, lights, sirens etc and took him away wearing only handcuffs and baggy underpants! (Yes, I know there are also girls in blue too but in this instance they were all boys!)

I was once ironing in my 4th floor flat when I saw movement in my peripheral vision. I looked out the window to see a gun carrying police officer stood on a ledge of the 2nd floor flat of the block next to me. When I looked around I could see several other armed officers dotted about hiding behind cars and bushes. I watched for a while but none of them moved so I went back to ironing. Even though my estate was really gossipy I never found out what happened.

I’m from NI. I didn’t know until I was 14 that all police aren’t armed in England, Scotland and Wales. I had been there but had never noticed the absence of guns

It became apparent when my Scottish aunt visited and was visibly shocked when she and I found ourselves walking past a group of heavily armed police officers in our small village. I couldn’t understand what was so surprising until she explained. Who knew

@SeaToSki

Machine guns are fully automatic, so they can reel of hundreds of bullets without pausing or the trigger having to be pulled for each bullet. They are mostly mounted to vehicles to carry the ammunition or take two people to operate, one to hold the gun and one to carry and feed the belts of ammunition.

Semi automatic guns are the next level down and can fire bursts of bullets with one trigger pull. Most police forces and many armed forces carry these guns as they are more portable because you dont need a box of ammunition for each time you fire. They have large capacity magazines and the operator carries multiple refills in their pockets or strapped to a vest thingy

Then there are ordinary guns which require a trigger pull for each bullet fired but can have a magazine with multiple bullets

Then there are bolt action guns (mostly rifles) which require each bullet to be loaded and fired individually

I hope I got that mostly correct!

Good effort but lots of it is wrong I'm afraid.

A machine gun is belt fed and fires fully automatic for as long as the trigger is held down. If you are skilled then single shots are possible though 2-3 round bursts are the norm, both for accuracy and to avoid overheating. This is not a police firearm in the uk. Regularly mounted on military vehicles but also carried by individual soldiers at section level for fire support.

Semi automatic means the trigger must be pulled for every shot, firing one round only. These will be magazine fed, typically 20 or 30 shots in a rifle, less in a pistol.

Sub machine guns can fire fully automatic or on semi automatic but are smaller firearms and fire smaller ammunition, typically 9mm rounds. Short range typically.

For many years and many roles the heckler and Koch mp5, a submachine gun, has been the preferred police weapon. This is what you mostly see in airports and is what the was used in the Iranian embassy siege in the eighties. However, UK police use semi automatic carbine versions of it.

If it's more assault rifle in look it's likely to be a heckler and Koch g36, a sig sauer sg516 or a sig sauer mcx carbine (that's what they had when we had our local hostage situation a couple of years back). These are semi automatic duties firing the same calibre as NATO military assault rifles (5.56mm). They are extremely sexy looking 🤓

Bolt action rifles have a small magazine which feeds a fresh round with each manual operation of the bolt and are single shot. More a sniper weapon now. My grandfather and great grandfather used these in the first and second world wars with the Lee Enfield rifles - although my grandfather's main weapon was a 3.7" anti aircraft gun and his father carried a lance and sword!!!

Maybe they are filming a crime programme for TV. did they use one of those battering ram things and smash the door down.

@1990s Honestly when I watched Line of Duty I was thinking, they never do this in really life... fascinated to hear they do!

Do you live in a sleepy backwater or something where nothing ever happens? Of course this happens. The same with surveillance, tracking devices etc etc. It's normal people that do these jobs. The TV programmes don't always get it exactly right (believe me, I hear the tutting when they get some details slightly wrong and just roll my eyes as I know I'm in for a boring explanation as to why)

This is a terrible and traumatic incident in someone's actual life and you're revelling in the excitement.The people involved are't paid performers for your entertainment. You really shouldn't be posting regular updates as if it's a theatre production you're watching.

I would be horrified if I went through something like this and found someone was relaying what was happening, minute by minute, on Mumsnet.

This behaviour goes way beyond curtain twitching nosy neighbours.

I have had the experience of armed police officers in my house.
They sure looked like machine guns to me!

@MobyDicksTinyCanoe

Ooooohhh, I love a bit of drama.

There's a particular area dp and I always make sure we walk through on the way to the Co-Op, it takes longer but its worth it. I've lost count on the number of times my dp has seen Dawn raids on his way to work 😂😂😂

You go out of your way to see dawn raids? Seriously?! I'd like to think you mean to stop them but given the laughing I guess that's not it.

Ds1 was once woken up as the door of the room above his in a shared house was kicked in by the police. A squad of armed police had entered the house, come upstairs past ds1’s door, on up the stairs to the next floor, and kicked in his housemate’s door to arres him, and they did it all so quietly that the first thing ds1 heard was the crash and his housemate’s eldritch shriek.

It turned out his housemate had murdered someone - and the twist was he’d stolen a knife from ds1’s IKEA knife set, to do it. Ds1 had to go to the High Court in London, to give evidence about it.

Most exciting (as in out of the ordinary) thing happened in my little town , was about ten years ago I was setting off to school early to go on a trip and the flats across the road had a full on raid, I was stopped and asked to go around (delaying the set off). Sadly it was a guy done for images of csa.

*This is a terrible and traumatic incident in someone's actual life and you're revelling in the excitement.The people involved are't paid performers for your entertainment. You really shouldn't be posting regular updates as if it's a theatre production you're watching.

I would be horrified if I went through something like this and found someone was relaying what was happening, minute by minute, on Mumsnet.

This behaviour goes way beyond curtain twitching nosy neighbours.*

Agreed. These are people's lives. And probably causing some fear and upset at the moment. I don't find that very entertaining.

Imagine it is a vulnerable woman being held and threatened at knifepoint.

I find all the "OOH how exciting !" posts quite sickening.

We got evacuated by the bomb disposal unit a few years back when the twatty next door neighbours thought they'd unearthed an unexploded bomb in their back garden. Turned out to be a saucepan lid

@Maddox33

This is a terrible and traumatic incident in someone's actual life and you're revelling in the excitement.The people involved are't paid performers for your entertainment. You really shouldn't be posting regular updates as if it's a theatre production you're watching.

I would be horrified if I went through something like this and found someone was relaying what was happening, minute by minute, on Mumsnet.

This behaviour goes way beyond curtain twitching nosy neighbours.

I agree. I much prefer the way Glaswegians dealt with the police on their street on Thursday. Solidarity rather than curtain twitching and gossiping on MN.

@mumwon

(For American readers please excuse the generalization!) Now if we were in some parts/communities of/in the USA op you would probably be able to tell us exactly what type of fire arm it was! Thank goodness for the reason we are ignorant about guns

Thanks for that "disclaimer" about your generalization of Americans.

I am American and Texan (an open carry state) and I have NEVER even seen a gun that wasn't in a holster carried by a police officer.

I know they sell them at sporting goods stores and outdoor sports stores but I've never actually gone up to that area in them.

I do have many friends and relatives who own them and go hunting and practice shooting at the gun range but I have never actually seen their guns.

Interestingly, my English husband and his brother have a pretty substantial knowledge about them (stemming from the time they were in the RAF) and keep up with it. My cousin's husband is from Wales (non-military) and he has spent many weekends at the gun range so OP, I won't generalize that many Briton's aren't interested or know about them because they do.

My most exciting moment? The dog barked and charged downstairs at 2am (ish).
I went down to find the (unlocked) back door wide open and my purse, cards and crap scattered outside. I did try to pursue, but could see no one. Heard a car pull away.
I put the kettle on and pondered what to do. I had definitely been robbed of at least £10, but had left the door unlocked ( middle of nowhere never locked doors).
Decided to ring non emergency number and report, just in case .
Within ten minutes, I had 2 police cars, a police van and police dogs at the front door🤤
Police dogs tracked villains to the village. Found two suspicious youths loitering behind the post office, but they were 'not of any interest'.
CSI woman arrived and took footprints.
Flashing blue lights, walkie talkies jabbering. A police woman, two policemen in the house,a police dogs and handler running around outside and DH slept through the whole thing. Told him about it next morning.
The baddies broke into two village houses the same night, but were never caught.

I remain gob smacked at the response 😁

Sorry, not OP but the poster "mumwon"

@Maddox33

This is a terrible and traumatic incident in someone's actual life and you're revelling in the excitement.The people involved are't paid performers for your entertainment. You really shouldn't be posting regular updates as if it's a theatre production you're watching.

I would be horrified if I went through something like this and found someone was relaying what was happening, minute by minute, on Mumsnet.

This behaviour goes way beyond curtain twitching nosy neighbours.

I agree, especially as the OP suspects domestic violence.

It's fucking disgusting really.

Nothing to see here