Man shooting at armed police from London house
Armed police have been shot at after being called to an incident at a west London residential street.
The officers were alerted to reports of the sound of gun shots in Markham Square, off King’s Road, Chelsea, west London, around 4.50pm today.
They came under fire at the scene, and a police spokesman confirmed officers have fired back.
There have been no reported injuries.
Kings Road has been closed.
Shop manager Shan Nimalakumar, 36, is locked in health store Holland and Barratt with one customer and two members of staff.
He said: “The police won’t let us anywhere near. We are now stuck in the shop. They said ’stay in the shop, lock the door and go to the back’.”
A number of shops on the stretch of King’s Road facing Markham Square have been forced to close.
No officers have been injured in the shoot out, police confirmed.
A waiter in Benihana restaurant said he and around 15 members of staff were stranded in the building.
He added: “I heard gun shots when I was outside, it was scary.”
Police cordoned off a large section of the King's Road, refusing to allow anyone to cross.
Cars were diverted around the road from the junction with Draycott Avenue, and pedestrians were prevented from coming past Royal Avenue.
A police officer at the cordon said it extended to the Town Hall.
Shoppers, office workers and students milled around in front of the cordon, trying to find out what had happened. Four double-decker London buses were visible, parked on either side of the cordon.
Police said there have been no arrests yet. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police could not reveal details of where the gunman was.
An eyewitness told Sky News that he had heard five or six gun shots.
A woman who lives near the scene of the shooting was seen at the cordon telling police she had reported hearing the gunfire.
She refused to give her name, saying only: “I would rather not talk, it’s really spooky.”
A man who lives in Wellington Square, opposite where the shooting is believed to have happened, said he was out shopping when he received a call from his wife.
The man, who would not give his name, said: “My wife rang me and said, ’are you all right, have you heard some shooting?’.”
His wife also saw armed police officers getting out of vehicles.
A police officer at the cordon told some local residents that shots were fired out of a jewellery shop called Folli Follie on the King's Road opposite the entrance to Markham Square, although this could not be confirmed.
