After two poisoned red kites were found, police officers raided a farm near Colchester, Essex and recovered firearms and “other articles”. No arrests have been reported.

During renovation work at an unoccupied flat in Birmingham, West Midlands, a worker found a gun and live ammunition. Police officers safely recovered the items for forensic examination.

During raids at properties in High Peak, Derbyshire, police officers discovered suspected cannabis, a blank-firing pistol, a gas-powered air pistol, a BB gun and a knife. A man was subsequently arrested on suspicion of possession of a firearm.

Armed police officers responding to a report that a man had been seen with a firearm in Rotherham, South Yorkshire seized an air rifle. No arrests were reported.

A man has been remanded in custody after being arrested at his home in Leeming, North Yorkshire for possessing rifle rounds without certification and possessing four grenades. Click on media link to read full report.

Martin Allan, aged 36, has been handed a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay costs after admitting failing to ensure that two of his legally-owned guns were securely stored. Police officers carrying out a weapons’ check at Allan’s home in Dufton, Cumbria found only three of his five firearms in his secure gun store. A loaded rifle was subsequently discovered in a locked shed, while a second gun was found in Allan’s farmhouse property. Allan claimed to have recently used both guns during his work: one to humanely destroy injured livestock and, the other, for pest control.

Following reports of a person with a firearm in the centre of Blackburn, Lancashire, police officers stopped a man and recovered a BB gun. He was arrested on suspicion of an imitation firearm in a public place.

Police officers responded after a man allegedly threatened bus passengers with an unknown substance in Thornton Heath, South London. He was Tasered and arrested on suspicion of affray. The man, suspected of having taken drugs, was treated in hospital.

Nicholas Rees, aged 26, has been jailed for six years after being found guilty of making an explosive substance, having an explosive substance and possession of a bladed article. Police officers arrested Rees in February 2023 after he was seen carrying a starting pistol in communal areas at Leeds University, West Yorkshire. He was re-arrested in May the same year after threatening police officers on the phone, saying he would use weapons against them and university staff members. He was found in his room, lying next to what was described as an assault rifle. Camouflage and chemicals that could be used in explosives were also recovered. The court heard that Rees was “aggrieved by others, students, females, the doctors not medicating him, people in authority, and the police” and had told a friend that he was preparing something “for walking into uni one day in full military-style get-up to shoot everyone for the lols”. Before his second arrest, members of two shooting clubs visited by Rees reported being alarmed by his behaviour, including carrying a large combat knife in his bag. Psychiatric evidence concluded that Rees has a mixed personality disorder, ADHD and mental and behavioural disorders due to multiple drug misuse.

A man died in hospital after being shot outside a gym in Skelmersdale, Lancashire. A few days after the shooting, police officers raided a property in Liverpool and arrested a man on suspicion of murder.