GAZETTE & HERALD: A JEALOUS ex-boyfriend is believed responsible for sparking a major armed police alert in Calne on Sunday night.

It is alleged a man claimed he had a gun and was threatening to kill his former partner .

On Sunday evening police were called when a 20-year-old man ran out into London Road, Calne. Six armed response vehicles and ten police officers from the firearms unit closed the road for an hour before arresting a man at the scene.

Residents said they were horrified about what had happened right outside their front door and many with young children locked themselves in their homes.

Sarah Daniels, 33, said her family watched the 20-minute ordeal unfold from their living room window, but her young daughter was so frightened they locked the front and back doors.

Other neighbours said their children were sobbing and crying because of the flashing blue lights and all the shouting that was going on outside.

At 8.20pm on Sunday someone rang the police saying a man was threatening others and claiming to have a gun in London Road.

A man was arrested for threatening to kill, but no gun was recovered and nobody was injured. The man is now on police bail for three to four weeks

Six units approached the road silently. Some officers were wearing the full equipment of the armed response unit (pictured left) to protect themselves and the public, which included black clothing, black helmets and face masks.

Not all of ten officers had fire arms, some were dog handlers and others were management in charge of the operation.

The dogs were kept restrained and the road was blocked off by a response vehicle just before Quemerford.

A police spokesman said a lot of research was done on the individual and it was decided that officers would approach him and deal with him, because it was established very quickly he didn't have a gun.

Rhiannon Sheehan, 21, was upstairs in her house when she heard shouting like 'keep still', 'put your hands behind your head' and 'don't move'.

She said a young man with a hood up was laying in the road with six officers pointing guns at him.

"It was quite scary," she said. "They eventually handcuffed him and he was just stood facing the fencing. It's the sort of thing you see on television, not at your front door. I couldn't believe it."

Neighbours across the road, Sharon Skelton, 41 and husband Stephen, 39, watched the drama from their front doorstep after hearing dogs barking.

Mrs Skelton said: "We were horrified by how the officers were dressed. We asked if we were safe. It was quite frightening. One man said we were as safe as houses but it unnerves you."

Armed response group inspector, Robert Lisseman-Edge said there were two people involved, but only one was the suspect.

He added: "Each and every fire arm deployment is considered a serious incident and firearms officers are only ever authorised to carry guns following an appropriate risk and assessment to ensure the public safety."

"This was a very short operation because the threat initially was a minor one."