Sheffield and Huddersfield residents heard 'loud bangs' during anti-terror raids

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of terror offences and a third is detained on suspicion of assisting an offender

Counter terror police assured local residents that the 'loud bangs' were part of police operations to gain entry to the addresses (PA)

Residents have said they heard “loud bangs” after armed officers performed anti-terror raids in Huddersfield and Sheffield.

Properties in both areas were searched by counter-terror officers after police received a tip-off on Thursday, and three men have since been arrested.

One Sheffield resident Nick Meeks, who lives at the Daisy Spring Works apartment block in Kelham Island, on the same floor as the raided flat, said he heard an “almighty explosion”.

He told the BBC a door was blown off at a second floor property.

“I stuck my head out of the door and there were fully-armed police pointing guns down the hallway towards me screaming and shouting at me to get back in the flat,” he said.

A resident on Rudding Street in Crosland Moor, Huddersfield, who did not wish to be named, said at one point his “house shook”.

He said: “I heard a loud bang that sounded like a really big explosion, I thought it was a bomb.

”I ran outside and saw about 30 police and armed officers. People on the street have been kept inside their houses.“

The raids are understood to be “Islamist-related”.

Two men, aged 24 and 29, were held in Huddersfield and Sheffield on suspicion of terror offences.

The North East Counter Terrorism Unit said the men were being held at separate locations and remained in custody on Friday morning.

A third man, aged 23, has since been detained in Sheffield on suspicion of assisting an offender.

A CTU spokesperson said the operations in Huddersfield and Sheffield were not related to the investigation into the Manchester Arena bomb attack.

”Both property searches have now concluded and we would like to thank the local communities for their patience and understanding,” she added.

The CTU reassured local residents that the “loud bangs” were part of police operations to gain entry to the addresses.

People living around a block of flats between Dun Street and Cornish Street, close to Sheffield's Inner Ring Road, said the bang went off at about 5.30pm on Thursday.

Others said they saw armed plain-clothed officers in the triangular courtyard in the centre of the modern block.

On Thursday night, cordons on the streets surrounding the property were lifted, although a number of police officers continued to guard the block - which is a relatively new building opposite the Shalesmoor tram stop - as a searches continued.

Similar scenes were reported in Huddersfield, where a large number of armed police were deployed in the Ellison Street area of the town.