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WITNESSES TO A hostage situation in a bowling alley the UK have described the moments the gunman entered the building.
A witness who had been at a children’s party at the bowling alley told Sky News a member of staff came over whispered in his ear for the group to leave.
“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,” said Lawrence Hallett.
“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.”
Police arrested the gunman yesterday and freed two hostages after the near five-hour stand-off at a bowling alley.
The arrest at Bermuda Park leisure park in Nuneaton, central England, came after police evacuated the area on being alerted to the gunman at around 1.30pm.
“We are pleased that we were able to bring this incident to a peaceful resolution and that there were no injuries,” said Alex Franklin-Smith from Warwickshire Police.
“I would like to reassure the Nuneaton community that the incident is unconnected to any terrorist activity,” he added.
Mehdi Afshar, MFA Bowl’s chief executive, told the BBC the hostages were staff and that the gunman was arrested after police stormed the building.
The two employees were held captive by a man described by Afshar as “a boyfriend or ex-husband to one of the members of staff”.
West Midlands Ambulance Service said one suspect was treated at the scene and taken to hospital. An AFP photographer saw an ambulance being driven away under police guard.
“Two other men have been assessed but were uninjured and have been discharged in scene,” the ambulance service wrote on Twitter.
MFA Bowl is located next to children’s activity centre Bermuda Adventure Soft Play World and close to Frankie and Benny’s restaurant, while the leisure park also has a gym and hotel.
At Bermuda Adventure, witness Megan Westwood said visitors were initially told there was a man 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,” she told the BBC.
Carl Lenton witnessed the scene from Frankie and Benny’s restaurant.
“There were police cars arriving, there was a helicopter, police dogs, armed police stood all around the bowling alley,” he told Sky News.
It was quite scary at times.
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And no doubt the tiger will be destroyed through no fault of his own. Zoos are awful places
I don’t think it would be standard practice to put the animal down in such a case.
I don’t understand why they can’t fire a dart and put the animal to sleep each time they’re going in to clean its enclosure. Perhaps the darts are expensive but how much does a human life cost?
Perth Zoo in Australia is the only zoo in the world that has a program for breeding and introducing Orang-utans back into the wild. Mates there are some terrible zoos with poor conditions but the good zoos are vital for conservation and the survival of endangered species.
I think that might take a toll on the animals health. It’s the equivalent of a general anaesthetic.
But I would have thought they’d at least shut the animal up in a separate part of its enclosure from the area being cleaned.
Tigers are endangered and, despite being caged, it’s still a wild animal. They’re not going to kill it ffs.
They won’t kill it – it was doing what wild animals do. There was clearly a failure of usual health & safety procedures. It’s eerily similar to what happened in South Lakes Zoo in the UK a couple of years back.
That’s amazing, the second one in a week or so. You’d think people would be more careful in such a dangerous job.
I had a dream last night that I was being stalked by a pride of lions and now this.
I’m going to be real nice to the cat.
The lions represent the FG and labour party stalking you and hunting you down. you need to confront them
OMG
These big animals should be roaming the wilds with their families and not locked up in zoos.
We used to bring the kids to the zoo to see the animals as a matter of education and a good day out.
No need anymore as you can see them up close and personal now in the wonderful nature documentaries!
If they were in the wild they’d be dead. Sad but true.
They would all be grand if humans had left them alone!
Was “#mauled” really necessary for the article?
What else are you going to call it. It’s the right word.
It’s certainly an appropriate word for what happened the ‘boks yesterday.
Smiley, they’re referring to the use of the hashtag #mauled, not the word itself.
People go on about dublin zoo.how great it is etc. Went last week with young daughter for first time in 20 years. Was appalling the size of their enclosure especially the Tigers. Will never set foot in another zoo
Another gruesome case of tiger gang violence in southern hemisphere zoos. It’s a similar scenario to human prisons where gang members, eager to earn their stripes and zoo cred callously attack zoo screws often resulting in death and back slashing.
The Tigers have rights. A dirty protest and hunger strike usually works.
This tiger was a dissident tiger and was in way connected with republicanism.
Another one.
Sure most zoo animals suffer from depression.fact. dublin zoo or any other zoo are no better than them in SeaWorld. Low life’s making millions out of suffering of animals
WHere is the outrage and the mass protests?
They will have to demolish the enclosure because the place will become haunted.
have your say