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Armed police attend incident after gold handgun ‘waved around’ by man in town centre

A gold BB gun was seized by police after they stopped a suspect in the street.

Officers were called following reports someone was waving a handgun around in Mansfield town centre.

That call came in around 11am on Wednesday (17 July), with police arriving in Ladybrook Lane minutes later.

A mixture of Armed Policing and response officers then carried out an extensive sweep of the surrounding area.

During this search, they spotted someone matching the description of the man who’d reportedly been seen with a firearm.

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The suspect was quickly detained by officers, at which point a gold-coloured imitation handgun and BB pellets were recovered.

A 38-year-old man was subsequently arrested on suspicion of possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

Inspector Andy Wilson, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “As showcased in this incident and similar ones before it, we will always respond in a robust manner should we receive reports concerning the sighting of a gun.

“We can never know for certain whether a suspected firearm is real or not when we’re called out to reports of this nature.

“Officers will therefore always treat these reports seriously and work under the premise that they’re looking for a viable firearm, as the public would expect from the police.

“Fortunately, we were able to quickly confirm on this occasion that the weapon reported to us was indeed an imitation firearm, and this has since been seized by our officers.

“It is important that people realise possessing a BB gun that resembles a real firearm in a public place will lead to them being arrested, regardless of the power of the gun itself.

“This doesn’t just apply to BB guns though, as it’s also a criminal offence for anyone to carry an imitation firearm of any kind, so that’s anything that has the appearance of being a potential firearm.   

“We hope the rapid response to this incident by our officers provides the public with some reassurance that we will take appropriate action.”

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