ARMED police swooped to arrest a 28-year-old man after reports that he walked into a Worcester library carrying a gun.

Officers were called to the Fairfield Centre in Carnforth Drive, Worcester, at 11.37am after the man entered the library with a firearm, police said.

When police arrived, they found that the man had discarded the weapon and left the premises, and he was detained by officers outside the building.

Superintendent Kevin Purcell said yesterday: "Officers recovered the weapon and arrested a 28 year-old man from Worcester on suspicion of a Firearms Act offence.

"The man remains in police custody at this time and nobody was injured during this incident.

"The incident is unconnected to any terrorist activity and I am grateful for the prompt response and actions from the Worcester community."

One eyewitness, who was leaving his home to go for a meal, opened the door and found a police van parked on his driveway.

"There must have been five or six police officers, I saw at least two armed police and about four or five police vans,” he said.

"There were two or three police dogs too."

Another eyewitness said: "I couldn't believe it. I was opening the door to my occupational therapist and suddenly all these police vans came out of nowhere.

“They were everywhere. I couldn’t tell you how many officers there were but they just pulled up and hopped across the road.

“I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Another eyewitnesses told the Worcester News: “It’s scary to think that that was going on right outside my door.

“I didn’t think something like that would ever happen around here.

“I didn’t see who they were arresting but I did see all the police officers.

“I have never seen that much police action before.

One mum said she was concerned for her son who was in nearby Fairfield Primary School.

“I just felt sick when I got the text from the school [about the incident]," she said.

“You hear all these stories about things like this happening but you never think it will happen round here. It is getting too close to home.

“We’re very lucky actually, what with all the people that are around here, there’s the school and the nursery next door as well as the surgery – as long as everybody is okay that is the main thing.”

Parents who were picking their children up from school were struggling to understand what would motivate somebody to carry a gun in public, they said.

“I can’t even bear thinking about doing something like that,” one mum said.

“I don’t get why anybody in their right mind would carry a gun."

Officers from the local Safer Neighbourhood Team are patrolling the area to reassure residents.

Anyone who witnessed the incident should contact West Mercia Police on 101, quoting incident number 252s of 9 October 2017.