Armed police at Cardiff Central board trains after reports of man with firearm

Police have revealed why armed officers boarded a train at Cardiff Central station bringing services to a standstill yesterday.

Pictures taken from the station show police officers, heavily armed with guns, on trains and platforms.

British Transport Police said its officers were called after getting reports that a man boarded a train in Newport with a firearm.

In a statement, the force said: "We were called shortly after 11am yesterday (23 July) after receiving a report that a man had boarded a train at Newport station and was believed to be in possession of a firearm.

"Officers conducted a full and thorough search of trains and stations. No one matching this description was located and enquiries are continuing."

All services in and out of Wales' busiest train station resumed yesterday afternoon.

Passenger Nick Everitt said armed police did a "full sweep" of the train he was on, which was bound for London.

He said nobody was allowed on or off the train, which was delayed for 40 minutes.

Another passenger, Grace, said: "We boarded the 11.25am train from Cardiff Central to Portsmouth Harbour, they let everyone board then said we all had to get off the train.

"Five minutes later they let us back on the train. All trains were stopped from arriving and departing the train station."

"At 11.32am armed police began arriving around our platform 2 and at 11.40am armed police entered the carriages asking to see everyone's hands, there were many of them all around our platform and some on other platforms.

"At 11.49am the armed guards began searching all the buildings."

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