Arrests in UK robbery case

Armed police have carried out a series of raids against suspected members of the gang responsible for Britain's biggest heist, as detectives claimed that the "net was closing" on the robbers.

At least two men are believed to have been arrested in the most recent operations.

One of the suspects was seized after marksmen reportedly shot the tyres on his car.

Detectives have also discovered firearms, body armour and balaclavas used by the six-man gang that stole up to £50m ($131.84m) from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent, on Thursday.

The gang's robbery kit was found along with £1.3m in cash abandoned in a van left in Ashford near the Channel Tunnel.

In addition, 14 metal cages used to transport the cash were discovered dumped in a field near Maidstone.

The white seven-tonne lorry used to transport the cash has yet to be found.

The armed gang kidnapped the manager of the Securitas Tonbridge depot, his wife and nine-year-old son, to help enter the warehouse and steal the cash.

So far police have confirmed that two women and four men have been arrested in connection with the inquiry, but all have been released on bail.

In what could be a significant series of operations, the police raided several homes in Kent and the surrounding area during the weekend.

Further arrests are understood to have taken place, but Kent Police have declined to give any details while the operations are ongoing.

According to witnesses to one raid in Tankerton, close to Whitstable, police marksmen disabled a BMW before pulling a man from the vehicle and arresting him.

Another man was said to have been arrested nearby.

Doug Gilbert, 78, described seeing two men being led away after plain-clothed police officers, carrying what appeared to be firearms, surrounded a car in the road outside his house.

Elaine Harte, 67, added: "I was returning to my house from shopping and I noticed there was man lying on the ground by a car.

"When I got closer I saw lots of men standing around him with guns.

"There was a lot of shouting going on, they were saying 'Get down! Get down!'"

In another operation forensic officers searched the house of a kick boxer after raiding his home near Tunbridge Wells yesterday.

The developments came as the Assistant Chief Constable of Kent, Adrian Leppard, described the discovery of abandoned guns and clothing as highly significant.

He said: "They are under pressure and we want to keep the pressure on. I am very encouraged at this stage by the progress we are making. The net is closing in."

During the weekend the depot's manager, Colin Dixon, who was kidnapped by the gang along with his wife Lynn and their son Craig, spoke for the first time about his family's "horrific" ordeal.

The 51-year-old said the "terror" he, his 45-year-old wife and son had experienced had amounted to the "worst night of my life".

- INDEPENDENT