‘Balaclava gang storm house’

l Police on Square Street in Ramsbottom

A ‘GANG of men in balaclavas’ stormed a house, according to residents who say they were evacuated by police as the incident unfolded.

A group of ‘eight masked men’ kicked down a door and rushed into a property in Old Ground Street, Ramsbottom on the evening of Tuesday, June 30, say witnesses.

Residents on the street say the gang scrambled from the scene in a van with items from the property before police arrived at the location.

Neighbours emerged from their homes to see ‘armed police’ swarming the street, with police cars being seen in a photograph from the incident.

One resident, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Free Press: “The lock on the door of the house involved was all twisted and mangled, the door was bashed in. About five police cars arrived and officers went in the house. They came out again and then evacuated the street at around 7.30pm.

“We were outside for about an hour and a half.

We saw various search teams and an armed response team.

“It was implied to us by police that they had found something in the house and they didn’t know what it was.”

Police remained outside the property all night and more arrived again in the morning, said the resident.

“About five plain police cars arrived this morning with armed officers inside. The house is now sealed up,” said the witness, speaking on July 1.

The incident has shaken residents who still feel ‘unnerved’ after suddenly being evacuated.

“It’s making us quite nervous because it’s a quiet, dead end street and we don’t get any through traffic from the main road,” said the anonymous neighbour. That house is not somewhere people just walk past every day. Somebody lives in it but the curtains are never open.

It’s unnerving when you’re evacuated.”

A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police said: “An investigation is underway. No arrests have been made.”