EXCLUSIVE: Dramatic moment armed police swoop on ‘Irish travellers’ and order them to ‘get down on the floor now’ – after late night drunken fight
- A witness filmed a group of four men ordered to lay on the ground by police
- The suspects were told to stay on the floor as officers trained weapons on them
- The arrest was after an alleged fight in a quiet north London street on Sunday
- The witness said: ‘It was like a movie as a police car screamed to a halt and four armed officers jumped out, pointed their guns shouting ‘Get down on the floor!’
This is the dramatic moment when armed police swooped on four men in a quiet residential street.
Terrified residents cowered in doorways and behind curtains as the four men – who had been involved in a drunken incident earlier – were forced to lie on the ground as the officers trained semi-automatic weapons on them.
The suspects, who told the police they were Irish travellers, lay prone as they were searched and handcuffed before being arrested in Stroud Green, north London.
Witnesses described the arrest as ‘like a scene from a movie’ as a police car screamed to a halt in a north London street officers jumped out, pointed their guns, shouting ‘Get on the floor!’
The arrests followed reports of a drunken fight down the quiet residential road where a group of men who called themselves Irish travellers were heard arguing before police arrived
One man, who according to one witness may have been reaching inside his pocket instead of putting his arms wide, received a hefty kick up the backside from one of the officers, along with a barked: ‘Arms down! f*****g arms down!’
As a police helicopter circled overhead, onlookers in the street, Harringay Road, were warned: ‘Move back! Move back! Do not come any closer!’
An eye-witness told MailOnline: ‘It was about 11pm last night and we heard shouting in the street outside and there was this group of five men with Irish accents who were having a loud drunken argument, pushing each other across the street.
‘One of them was carrying a leather belt in his hand. Something had gone on round the corner on Green Lane because we could see a group of girls on the corner who were screaming at the corner and some shopkeepers out as well,’ said the witness, who asked not to be named.
‘I don’t know exactly what had happened before, but everyone was at their windows watching what was going on.’
‘Then suddenly I saw some lights at the end of the street and it started to resemble a scene from a movie as a police car screamed to a halt and four armed officers jumped out, pointed their guns at the men, shouting ‘Get down on the floor now!’.
‘At that point, most of the people standing in their front doors or looking through windows ducked back inside very quickly, not surprisingly.
‘One of the guys lying on the floor – I don’t know if he might have been reaching for something – got a kick from one of the officers who had told him to put his arms down.
The suspects, who told the police they were Irish travellers, lay prone as they were searched and handcuffed before being arrested in Stroud Green, north London
‘It didn’t strike me as particularly brutal, more persuasive – I’ve no idea what had been happening to lead up to this incident after all. From what I could see, the officers behaved very professionally.’
He said the four suspects were questioned and searched on the floor and one of them asked the police: ‘Is it because we are Irish travellers?’
‘He seemed to be suggesting the police should be arresting some shopkeeper or other and claimed the man had a knife. It was all quite confusing, to be honest.’
‘As the four men were loaded into a van to be taken away, they got a bit merry and started singing Irish songs.’
The Metropolitan Police were contacted.