Armed police swooped in Ipswich town centre after members of the public reported seeing a man with a gun.

Officers arrested a male and recovered a weapon following the operation in Rope Walk around 8pm on Friday night.

Eyewitnesses Jared Easter and his friend Ryan Wiseman were parking their car to visit a friend in a nearby flat and saw the incident unfold.

Mr Easter, of Ipswich, said: “We were just parking up and suddenly heard the police shout ‘get to the ground, get to the ground’.

“We saw it all through our rear window just as we were pulling in.

“We were pretty shocked as we didn’t know what was going on – we were watching it all happen and it didn’t seem real, but we didn’t want to get out of the car.

“We saw a revolver-style pistol on the ground but we couldn’t tell if it was real or not.”

Mr Easter said that the man had not put up any struggle and had gone peacefully with officers.

A spokesman for Suffolk police said there was an “ongoing incident” and that a firearm had been recovered.

“We had calls from concerned members of the public who had seen a male carrying a hand gun in Grimwade Street,” the spokesman said.