A man has been arrested after armed police were called to Hitchin on Friday afternoon.

The incident happened following reports of a man allegedly in possession of firearm in a garden in Walsworth Road.

Police were called at 1.11pm today (Friday 8 January) with armed officers attending the scene. A road closure was put in place as a precaution while the incident was dealt with.

Hitchin Nub News visited the scene and spoke with eye-witness William Sale.

"I was working on my study and I saw the police cordon off the road from one end to the other," he said.

"Probably about ten or 15 minutes later two armed response units turned up and they've taken all their gear out and got their 'door smashers' set up.

"They came to one of the houses along Walsworth Road and about 20 minutes to half an hour later they broke in and took him away.

"I didn't hear any shots although I heard the door being broken down. There were probably around 10 or 12 armed officers as there were at least three cars around 130pm.

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"The armed police had machine-guns [semi-automatics] I didn't see the man brandishing a weapon [but] they put him in the van."