A RESIDENT has said a police raid was like “something out of the movies” after witnessing armed officers storm a property as helicopters circled a small village.

Tina Gibson Diester, 55, of Dumont Avenue, St Osyth, lives just two doors down from a bungalow which was involved in an intense police raid on Sunday evening.

According to Mrs Diester, who was alerted to the ordeal when her rottweiler starting barking, about seven police cars descended on the usually quiet street.

The officers were armed with guns and riot shields, and stormed inside after removing two men from the property and putting them in vehicles.

Mrs Diester said: “We looked out our window and there were two officers with guns directly outside our house and there were loads more police two doors down.

“They were all definitely armed, and they stormed inside with guns and shields and they were inside for about an hour or so before coming out.

“It was absolute bedlam and like something out of the movies.

“They brought two men outside, but then at the end, they let them go. If it was a false alarm, then they have wasted a lot of money, and for what?”

Another resident who lives in Dumont Avenue, and has asked to not be named, said she also saw armed police officers enter a property not far from her home.

She said: “I was mortified to be honest because I don’t expect that to go on in Point Clear.

“My nan and grandad also live down the road, so it is just unsettling.

“There were armed police down the road, and they were raiding a house because apparently they had weapons inside.”

A spokesman for Essex Police has since confirmed that officers were called to Dumont Avenue after being tipped off about a possible weapon at a property in the area.

However, after conducting the lengthy search, the police failed to retrieve any firearms.

They said: “A woman in her 20s reported she had seen a firearm at an address in Dumont Avenue, St Osyth, on Sunday January 12 at around 7pm.

“Officers attended the address and no firearms were located.”