Court escape attempt foiled as police shoot dead suspect

A man was shot dead when armed officers swooped on a suspected plot to spring a prisoner from court.

He was killed just yards from Wood Green Crown Court in north London after Metropolitan Police officers surrounded a car.

Scotland Yard said four men between the ages of 19 and 31 were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to facilitate the escape of an individual from lawful custody.

Men aged 30 and 19 were held in the Bracknell Close area, while two more aged 31 and 25 were detained in nearby Barratt Ave. They are being held at separate police stations.

The man who was killed is believed to have been near the back entrance to the court building when he was fired upon.

Scotland Yard said the operation was not related to terrorism, but would not confirm whether the man was shot by police.

Armed police wearing balaclavas and in unmarked 4x4 vehicles carried out the “intelligence-led” operation at around 9am yesterday.

Witness Nick Lindsay, a workman surfacing a road nearby, said the man who was shot was sitting in his car when police moved in.

He told Sky News: “The police all came down; they all jumped out of cars with their guns and said ‘Get down’, and then there was a smash, then the gunshot went off. By that time police officers grabbed us to move us out of the way.”

Mr Lindsay said the incident was over in 10 to 15 seconds, but the man had been in the car for around 30 minutes before the police swooped.

He said: “He was parked there for easily half an hour, I would have said, because he was there when we first turned up this morning.”