In one of the biggest haul of firearms in Britain, police on Wednesday seized hundreds of shotguns as also automatic and semi-automatic weapons from a suburban house on the outskirts of London in co-ordinated pre-dawn raids.
Most of the huge cache was recovered from a house when some 30 police officers conducted three coordinated raids in the town of Dartford, Kent while a similar operation was carried out by US authorities in New Jersey, officials said.
Police said the raids were not terrorism-related and was carried out as part of 'Operation Trident,' which targets gun crime in the black community linked to drug trafficking in the British capital.
One person was arrested in the US, while a 55-year-old man was taken into custody from the house in Dartford. Detective superintendent Kevin Davis of the Operation Trident said hundreds of weapons were found.
"This is the biggest firearms haul we (Operation Trident) have ever had," he told reporters, adding: "The premises raided were used to store hundreds and hundreds of weapons. I have never seen anything like it."
"Guns are mounted on every available wall space in the property and live ammunition was found lying on the floor. There are guns everywhere. It will take us at least three days to log it all and collect the evidence," he said.
Davis said the operation has resulted in 'hundreds of guns being taken out of circulation and has potentially prevented a number of serious injuries or even deaths occurring on the streets of London.'
