Four suspected armed robbers are being quizzed by police after they were arrested in dramatic scenes in Dudley on Friday.
The alleged robbers and two suspected accomplices were detained by armed police near the centre of Dudley shortly after thieves raided a convenience store in the town on Friday.
At around 5.30pm officers carrying semi-automatic weapons arrested two men from inside a house on Wellington Road and four from a vehicle outside, before sealing off the road and surrounding the building. More than two hours later they raided the house but found nobody inside.
The men, aged between 18 and 54, are suspected of being behind a spate of armed shop robberies in the Black Country, including one at an off-licence on Priory Road on Friday. Cash, cigarettes and alcohol were stolen in that raid, which happened just one mile away from where police cornered the suspects.
A witness described how the raiders entered the convenience store with weapons in hand and emptied the till before making off with goods from behind the counter and one of the worker's handbags.
Later an unmarked police car carrying armed officers stopped a white taxi in Wellington Road and arrested everyone inside, as well as two people from inside a property. Crowds gathered as around eight armed officers, including two dog handlers, arrived in unmarked vehicles and patrol cars and remained stationed outside the house
Wellington Road was sealed off and onlookers congregated on the car park of nearby Dudley leisure centre until police raided the building only to find it empty. The men are suspected of being behind the Priory Road raid and a number of other robberies at Spar outlets across Dudley and Sandwell over the last 10 days.
Four of the men are being questioned on suspicion of robbery and two on suspicion of assisting an offender.
In a separate investigation, police have arrested two men in connection with a series of recent raids on One Stop outlets across Sandwell and Dudley.
The men, aged 25 and 30, remain in custody on suspicion of robbery after being arrested on Friday morning.
