A 17-year-old male was arrested today after armed police officers were called to the town centre at 4.20am following reports that a group of men had been seen with a weapon.

St Matthew’s Street was temporarily closed between Museum Street and Berners Street while police attended the scene.

A Suffolk police spokesman said: “A hand gun, believed to be gas-powered, was also recovered. Searches were carried out on St Matthew’s Street but no further arrests were made.

“No one was injured in the incident.”

Police confirmed the person currently being held at Martlesham Police Investigation Centre is a 17-year-old from Ipswich. He has been arrested on suspicion of carrying a firearm or imitation.

An eyewitness said police used their vehicles to block off the road from the car park in Crown Street, opposite M&S, and the flats near Iceland by St Matthew’s Street roundabout.

Linda Sadler, who on her way to work at 4.55am, said there were also around three police cars in Civic Drive, with officers seemingly observing what was going on.

By that stage she said police did not appear to be holding firearms.

Miss Sadler said: “The police seemed to have it all under control.

“One officer was talking to a couple of young males just past QD where there is an alleyway.

“The policeman by Iceland was talking to three young people, two males and a female.”

Subsequently Charlotte Parker, a spokeswoman for Suffolk Constabulary, said officers are not connecting the incident with the arrest of 19-year-old Polish national Adrian Lubecki, of St Matthews Street, Ipswich, who was charged with being concerned in the supply of controlled drugs (ecstasy) and possession with intent to supply a Class B drug.

The teenager appeared before South East Suffolk Magistrates Court yesterday and was remanded in custody until his next appearance before Ipswich Crown Court on January 15.

The charge follows the deaths of two young men Justas Ropas, 22, and Gediminas Kulokas, 24, in Ipswich on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day and a third man John Hocking, 20, in Rendlesham, from a suspected batch of rogue ecstasy bearing the ‘Superman’ insignia.

More than 400 pills were found on Sunday, hidden in what police have described as a “public place near Norwich Road”.