Armed police search house in West Kilburn

Armed police today raided a house in north-west London thought to be linked to one of four men being hunted in connection with yesterday’s failed bombings in the city.

Witnesses described how officers descended on an area surrounding Harrow Road, in West Kilburn, cordoning off streets and shouting at residents to stay indoors.

Residents said a house opposite the junction of nearby Portnall Road and Coomassie Road was raided after 1pm after an armoured truck containing police wearing helmets and gas masks pulled up outside.

A remote-controlled robot was said to have been sent in first, before armed officers fired six rounds of CS gas into the windows and basement of the house from a building across the street.

After a short wait police were seen to rush in, but left later apparently empty handed. No one was arrested.

Patricia Osbourne said she saw an armoured van drive down the road with approximately six police officers crouching behind it.

She said at one point the police broke away from the van and ran into a house, taking a dog with them.

She said: “I just saw people rushing in there and lots of shouting and six shots.”

Portnall Road resident Venetia Elphick said police used her home to target the raided house, telling her the operation was directly connected to yesterday’s failed attacks, while more than 20 officers waited outside.

Two armed policemen set up camp in her front room and fired what they said was gas at the other property.

She said: “I heard a knock at the door and a man said he was an armed police officer. He brought his colleague in and they both had guns and they took over my sitting room.

“They said I had to go to the back of the house. They opened the window and stood at the window with machine guns.

“Then they told me they were going to release some type of gas. Then I heard some gassy noise then shooting out of the window.”

Ms Elphick said that she could not see what was going on and had been “really scared”.

“They seemed like they were waiting for something but I’m not quite sure what happened,” she said.

“It all ended when the police officer came and said I could use my sitting room again.”

Huse Monfaradi, a 31-year-old music video director who also lives in Portnall Road, said police had initially run up the road telling everyone to get inside their houses.

“Anyone who even put their head out, they screamed at them ‘get inside your house’,” said.

He said the raid happened very quickly at around 1pm after an armoured truck parked across the road.

Mr Monfaradi explained: “Shortly after that I saw one of those little drones. “Five minutes after that I heard seven bangs which sounded like firecrackers.

“The police put their gasmasks on. There were police in flak jackets and with shields. “When they sent the drone in I saw two police with shields and hand guns follow it in.”

Various witnesses described seeing people being interrogated by police on Harrow Road.

Mohammed Kalam, 29, said he had been on a bus heading when he spotted police surrounding two men outside an internet café, not far from the Portnall Road intersection.

He said there were five plain-clothed police officers. At 1.30pm he saw a young boy and a woman who both had their hands on the wall of the internet café.

“The boy was wearing a red t-shirt but police then made him put on a white outfit,” he said. “I heard police say, ’put your hands against the wall. Don’t panic.’"

The last thing he saw was the people being held getting into an ambulance.

Parwiz Raza said he saw police officers hold one woman and a teenager at gunpoint, describing how officers with machine guns made them put their hands on the window of the shop.

Maryam Boujaama, 21, said armed police approached three women wearing Islamic dress and a boy.

“They were just walking down the street and then police all came out and they were like ’Don’t move, don’t move’. They were searching the women and the boy.”

Two of the women were described as middle-aged, while a third was 60 or 70 and the boy 13 or 14.

The women were then said to have been driven away in an ambulance.

Petica Watson, a 32-year-old TV researcher, who was walking past soon afterwards, said: “I was confronted by this policeman, who was yelling at me, with this machine gun.”