COMMUNITY leaders have spoken of their shock after armed police raided a block of flats in Southampton.

Residents were stunned to see a large amount of police activity outside a three-storey apartment block in Park Road, Freemantle.

A man was arrested after several police vehicles converged on Park Road Apartments just after 9.30am yesterday.

A resident, who lives on Elgin Road and wished not to be named, said: “I was walking down the street and I saw three police wagons. There were five armed police officers stood outside. There were two stood either side of the door and the rest were in front of it talking.

“There were also a couple of police officers stood by the van looking at something or someone through the window.

“They all looked rather happy, like whatever they had done was a success.

“I have never seen anything like that around this area before – it was a bit of a shock.

“The windows of the house are always boarded up. They have not always been like that – they were not like that when I moved to the area about a year ago.

“You could always smell cannabis when you walked passed it. I always said to my partner that I thought drugs were going on there.”

Last night ward councillor Brian Parnell said: "It's not very often that this sort of thing happens.

"The other day I was coming up London Road and saw a car had been blocked in by police. Later I read in the Daily Echo that someone had been stabbed.

"We do get our share of incidents but Southampton is a safe city. We don't go around in fear that something's going to happen."

The flats, one of which is boarded up, are at the junction of Park Road and Waterloo Road.

A couple living a few hundred yards away said they saw three police cars at the scene yesterday morning following police activity in the same area on Saturday.

A woman whose home is directly opposite the flats added: "I saw a lot of police but I don't know what was going on."

Park Road Apartments are next to the old Freemantle Social Club, which has been closed and boarded up.

Following the initial raid police vehicles came and went all day. A van drew up outside the flats but drove away shortly afterwards, leaving officers inside the building, and a police car made a brief visit to the street minutes later.

Last night two uniformed officers were in the entrance hall and appeared to be talking to some of the residents.

A van attached to Operation Fortress, a police campaign to target drugs-related violence in communities across Hampshire, was parked outside.

A police spokesman said: "Police detained a man at an address on Park Road as part of an on-going investigation.

"This incident is being contained locally and there is no cause for concern for the wider public. For operational reasons we cannot disclose any further detail at this stage."

However, the spokesman confirmed that armed officers had been involved in the operation. He added that no shots were fired.