FIREARMS officers were called in amid reports a gunman was firing from a block of flats.

Specialist officers surrounded a top-floor flat in Harmer Street, Gravesend, after reports a man was firing an air rifle out of a window.

Eye-witnesses noticed police with assault rifles in the deserted street after the area was cordoned off for 45 minutes, causing traffic to grind to a halt.

And traders looked on from their businesses while officers restrained two suspects with cable ties and handcuffs.

Police were at the scene at 10.15am on May 3.

Sales assistant James Gaydon, 28, said he heard the police shouting to the man in the flat.

The White Elephant music shop employee said his friend had passed a women sobbing in the street outside the building.

She was later led to the other side of the road and handcuffed by police, said Mr Gaydon.

A man and a woman from the flat surrendered themselves to police and were arrested on suspicion of possession of a firearm.

The woman was later released without charge.

Mr Gaydon said rumours were flying around the street, including stories a hostage was being held in the flat and a stash of weapons had been discovered.

He said: "We could hear shouting, and we thought, it's Gravesend, there are a few nutters around', but I have seen it all now as there were two coppers outside with assault weapons.

"They were shouting at someone in the flat.

"They said don't move'.

"Four or five police marched up the road in full regalia."

Melanie Williams, landlady of the Call Boy, Harmer Street, invited fed-up bus passengers into the pub for a drink after they were stranded when the road closed.

She said: "If anything had happened there were a lot of people, there could of been a lot of fatalities.

"About 50 people were looking on. We saw the people being arrested."

The street was reopened at 11am.