'Net closing' on robbers after arrests

Armed police have launched a series of raids against suspected members of the gang responsible for Britain's biggest heist.

At least two men are believed to have been arrested in the most recent operations. One of them was seized after marksmen reportedly shot the tyres on his car. Witnesses said the man's BMW was disabled before he was pulled from the car by police and arrested.

Detectives said the "net was closing" on the robbers and they have retrieved firearms, body armour and balaclavas used by the six-man gang that stole up to £50m from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent, last Wednesday. The gang's kit was found along with £1.3m in cash abandoned in a van at Ashford, near the Channel Tunnel.

Fourteen metal cages used to transport the cash were discovered dumped in a field near Maidstone, but the white lorry in which the money was taken from the depot has yet to be found.

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 a separate operation, officers searched a house near Tunbridge Wells.