Man 'with explosives' evacuates Sheffield flats and brings city to standstill

SWNS

Armed police have evacuated an apartment block in Sheffield city centre over fears a man inside has explosives and weapons.  Residents of The Gateway flats were ordered out at 7.20pm on Monday and sent to a sports centre two miles away.  Nearby buildings remain on lockdown, and a 300-metre stretch of the city’s ring road is closed, causing major disruption.  Police are negotiating with the man, who allegedly made threats.  South Yorkshire Police have urged the public to avoid the area while emergency services continue their work.

Transcript

00:00Morning Sheffield, it's Alistair again from the Sheffield Star. I'm speaking to you from

00:03Ponds Forge Sports Centre where it's quite an unbelievable scene. We've had scores of

00:08people sleeping inside the sports centre overnight at something of an evacuation centre. I've

00:14been speaking to people here so far, the understanding so far is quite a lot of the people inside

00:17here today are from the Gateway Student Accommodation on Broad Street, which is where a lot of the

00:22action has been centred today and indeed is on the other side of the roundabout where

00:25I'm standing right now. People were given the word about it first at about 7pm but were

00:31evacuated at around 8pm last night over reports of, I've been told by students living here,

00:36of a man in the top floor flat of the Gateway Student Accommodation threatening that they

00:43had weapons and explosives was the word they used. There's been very little in the way

00:48of rumours for people here, there have been very few updates by and large. In the meantime

00:52it really is all a sit and wait incident. I should say the people I've spoken to have

00:57really praised the volunteers and staff here at Ponds Forge. People have been staying here

01:01overnight but they've been fed airbeds, pillows, blankets, they've been treated really quite

01:05well. They still say they're sleep deprived obviously but they couldn't fault the volunteer

01:09service, the out of hours service. A lot of staff apparently came back from off their

01:13duty to come in and help last night as people were put up here at the sports centre. But

01:18the Gateway itself appears to be the centre of the action here, it's where a lot of the

01:22police scene that I've seen while walking around today has been focused and so far the

01:26ongoing rumour is a man in the top floors screaming that they had weapons. People were

01:32stood here on the plaza behind me last night and they could hear bellowing shouts from

01:38across the roundabout.

01:40We've had a lot of people screaming into the night is the best way of putting it. What

01:47sort of situation we have in our hands here, we've had no confirmation if any weapons have

01:50been found or if this is what the nature of this incident is but we'll be able to bring

01:54you more as it happens. But so far the city of Sheffield, certainly on this side, is currently

02:00at a standstill. There is traffic in all directions, people are unable to get to work or get on

02:04with their morning as they'd like to and the action seems to be centred here on the Gateway,

02:09the student accommodation and we'll bring you more information as it happens.

Category

Transcript

Recommended