Armed police seal off Bilston town centre

ARMED police raided a flat in Bilston town centre today and recovered a gun.

Officers with machine guns stood at the town's central crossroads of Lichfield Street, Mount Pleasant, Wellington Road and Walsall Street, blocking traffic.

Police arrested two men on suspicion of being in possession of a firearm.

Click on the image on the right to see more pictures from the scene.

Witnesses said both were led out of a flat above Classic Furniture, in Lichfield Street, wearing underwear. One of the suspects was also wanted in connection with an earlier assault.

Supt Jan Thomas-West, of Wolverhampton police, said this afternoon: "We had information in relation to two men being in the premises in a flat who were believed to be in possession of a firearm.

"We've undertaken an operation today and arrested two men from the flat, aged 20 and 23. We believe we may have recovered a handgun, but we're waiting up on confirmation of that."

She said the intelligence-led operation was not connected to three recent shootings in Whitmore Reans, Park Village and Low Hill.

Eyewitnesses told of police being "everywhere" during the drama, which started at 1am and had finished by 12.20pm.

Sushile Kumari, aged 60, from Bilston, has been running Classic Furniture in Lichfield Street for 30 years.

She said: "The police came and blocked off the whole road. They had big guns and told us to stay inside the shop."

She added that they were able to watch the raid on the store's CCTV. "Two people have been arrested. They were led out of the upstairs flat in their underwear," she said. Ms Kumari added that police tore up floorboards of the upstairs flat during the search.