A suspected gunman took more than 15 people hostage during a three-hour siege at a bank in west London today.
Barclays Bank staff and customers were held hostage when the armed raider walked into the bank in Ashford, near Heathrow airport, shortly after 4pm.
During a tense stand-off trained hostage negotiators made contact with the man holed up in the bank as the streets surrounding the building were cordoned off and nearby homes evacuated.
A woman called Leanne, who said she was inside the bank when the armed man came in, told Sky News: “I was talking to one of the Barclays staff members when a man came in with a big rifle and told people to get down on the floor. There were a few staff in there and about five customers.
“He told one man to lock the door and then started handing out boiler suits and some sort of solvent to the bank staff. He told them to give the boiler suits to all of us and to use the solvent to spray the windows so people couldn’t see in.
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“I started having a panic attack and he asked if anyone had a heart condition they should tell him so I said I was having an attack and he let me go.”
Shortly afterwards eye-witnesses saw some of the hostages being led out in single file, many had their hands bound with plastic ties.
Many of those released were ordered to kneel down while officers searched them before they were led to an ambulance where they were checked over by paramedics.
It is believed as many as 16 people were eventually freed, around four of them were staff. No one was seriously injured.
Witnesses said that one man in a boiler suit who came out of the bank had a gun put in his face by police and there was speculation that this was the man who was arrested.
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Superintendent Duncan Greenhalgh, said Surrey Police said: “A number of people were inside the bank at the time and being prevented from leaving.
“Trained hostage negotiators made contact with an individual inside the bank and just after 7pm a man came out of the bank and was contained by armed police.”
A man in his 30s was arrested and was being held in police custody tonight.
Mr Greenhalgh added that the experience had been “traumatic” for both bank staff and the public in the building.