FAMILIES told of their shock today after armed police sealed off a quiet street on a Felixstowe housing estate and stormed a house.Officers wearing bullet-proof vests and equipped with weapons carried out the carefully-planned swoop as part of an operation in connection with a firearms investigation.

FAMILIES told of their shock today after armed police sealed off a quiet street on a Felixstowe housing estate and stormed a house.

Officers wearing bullet-proof vests and equipped with weapons carried out the carefully-planned swoop as part of an operation in connection with a firearms investigation.

Neighbours said a Turkish man was led away from the house, bundled into a dark-coloured estate car and driven off.

A police spokeswoman said today that a 40-year-old man had been arrested and was in custody being questioned on suspicion of firearms offences.

The raid happened in Elizabeth Way on the Coronation Estate at just after 11am yesterday.

Residents said an unmarked estate car suddenly swept down the street and pulled across the driveway of a house.

As three police officers carrying guns got out of the vehicle and burst into the property, more unmarked cars carrying armed officers poured into the street, blocking the road in both directions.

More armed officers could be seen at the rear of the target house.

Residents were prevented from going into the street in their cars and on foot.

"There were armed officers everywhere – up and down the street, out the back. They seemed to come from everywhere, so many of them," said one resident.

"I have never seen anything like it. It was unreal.

"They had massive great guns on display. We just want to know what it was all about – who was this person that has been living in our street that it needed all these officers with guns. It is very worrying and we all want to know that we are safe."

Another resident said: "I saw some of it from my window – it was like a film scene. It was very frightening. I don't know the people who lived in the house – they seemed very private people."

Neighbours said the target house was occupied by a Turkish man and his wife and a young child. The woman is believed not to speak English.

They are understood to have previously lived in Great Yarmouth and the man was involved in the restaurant trade.

Neighbours said they were "very pleasant, and very quiet" and kept themselves to themselves. There were often comings and goings from the house at strange hours and lights were often on all night.

After the man was taken away, a police forensic team visited the house and residents said a bag of items was removed and the man's car was towed away.