Six people arrested as armed police surround Dudley house
Armed police surrounded a house in Dudley for more than two hours on Friday after six men were arrested over a spate of robberies.
Officers carrying semi-automatic weapons arrested two men from inside the building on Wellington Road and four from a vehicle outside at around 5.30pm on Friday, before surrounding the house and sealing off the road.
More than two hours later they raided the house but found nobody else inside.
The men, aged between 18 and 54, were detained in connection with a series of shop raids around the Black Country, including one at a nearby off-licence shortly before the arrests.
Cash, cigarettes and alcohol were stolen during Friday's armed robbery on Priory Road - just one mile away from where the suspects were caught on Wellington Road.
A witness described how the raiders entered the convenience store with weapons in hand and emptied the till before making off with behind-the-counter goods and one of the worker's handbags.
Later an unmarked police car carrying armed officers stopped a white taxi in Wellington Road and arrested everyone inside. Two more people were arrested from inside the property.
Crowds gathered as around eight armed officers, including two dog handlers, arrived in unmarked vehicles and patrol cars and remained stationed outside the house following the arrests at around 5.30pm.
Wellington Road was sealed off and people congregated on the car park of nearby Dudley leisure centre to watch the incident unfold. However two hours later police raided the building and found nobody else inside.
The men are suspected of being behind the Priory Road raid and a number of robberies at Spar outlets across Dudley and Sandwell over the last 10 days.
Four of the men are being questioned on suspicion of robbery and two on suspicion of assisting an offender.
Footage from the scene of the arrests:
