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| Police arrest Nuneaton gunman after storming bowling alley | Police arrest Nuneaton gunman after storming bowling alley |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A gunman who held two members of staff hostage at a bowling alley in Nuneaton has been arrested and the two employees are believed to be unharmed, Chris Clegg, operations director of MFA Bowl, said. | |
| The suspected gunman was taken to hospital in an ambulance after police stormed the West Midlands building. | The suspected gunman was taken to hospital in an ambulance after police stormed the West Midlands building. |
| Parents who were in the complex with their children on the first weekend of the half-term holidays described how they were told to barricade the doors with furniture while the gunman was on the loose. | Parents who were in the complex with their children on the first weekend of the half-term holidays described how they were told to barricade the doors with furniture while the gunman was on the loose. |
| The incident is now over, police have confirmed. | The incident is now over, police have confirmed. |
| Medhi Amshar, manager of the MFA bowling alley in Bermuda Park, has said that two members of his staff were being held hostage. | |
| Mr Amshar said he believed the gunman was the partner or former partner of one of his employees, although this is unconfirmed. | Mr Amshar said he believed the gunman was the partner or former partner of one of his employees, although this is unconfirmed. |
| He said he realised two members of his staff were missing following a headcount after the building was evacuated. | |
| Witnesses described the gunman as being "in his 40s" and carrying a gun "slung" over his shoulder. | |
| The gunman is said to have yelled at people to "Get out", screaming "Game over!" at terrified men, women and children enjoying a family day out. | |
| Lawrence Hallett, who had been at a family children's party at the alley, told Sky News: "One of the staff came up to us and quietly whispered in my ear to leave and I initially thought it was a fire alarm or something like that and I said 'What's the problem? We are halfway through a game' and he said 'There is a gunman'. | |
| "I looked up and there was a guy, probably 20 or 30 feet away, walking towards us with a sawn-off shotgun sort of slung over his shoulder, if you like. | |
| "I thought it was a joke and panicked a little bit and shouted 'everyone get out', and basically ran, hell for leather, out of the building. | |
| "We then hung around outside for a little while ... we didn't know what to do, what was going on and he came out and swore and said 'what the heck are you guys' ... unslung his gun and went back in again and at that point we backed off to our cars. | |
| "He was a 40-odd year-old guy, a bit rough around the edges, unshaven etc, etc." | |
| Carl Lenton was sitting with his family at a table by the window in Frankie and Benny's when the incident began. | |
| He told Sky News: "The manager from Frankie and Benny's came round and said we were in lockdown and we have got to stay in and there had been an incident at the bowling alley, a man over there with a gun. | |
| "There were police cars arriving, there was a helicopter, police dogs, armed police stood all around the bowling alley, around the outside of it. | |
| "It was quite scary at times." | |
| West Midlands Ambulance Service said it was called to the incident at 3.40pm and sent an ambulance, two paramedic officers, the Hazardous Area Response Team, and an emergency planning manager to the scene. | |
| Children were evacuated from the nearby Bermuda Adventure Soft Play World, according to Megan Westwood, who was there with a friend. | |
| She told BBC News: "One of the staff told us to get away from the windows because there was a man outside with a knife. As time went on we were later told that he actually had a gun and they barricaded the doors, kept us all away from the windows, and then we were told that he had hostages in the bowling alley next to us." | |
| They were evacuated by the back door into the Holiday Inn Express hotel, which she said was "full of children" at the time. | |
| Additional reporing by agencies | |