MYSTERY last night surrounded an incident at one of Belfast’s most popular department stores when a man armed with a gun was arrested amid shoppers.
Debenhams in CastleCourt had been packed full of shoppers taking advantage of the post-Christmas sales yesterday when, at around 2.20pm, police arrived to arrest a young man.
Shoppers told the News Letter of how they had seen a “youngish” man approach a perfume counter on the ground floor of the store. Police say he was spotted “acting suspiciously”.
The PSNI were alerted and arrived on the scene while the gunman was still present.
Crowds stopped in their tracks at the front door of CastleCourt shopping centre as police escorted the man from the store into a PSNI minibus.
An elderly woman shopping with her husband, who did not wish to be named, described the scene as “a lot of commotion” and said shoppers were panicking.
A shop assistant from the beauty section said that police had arrived on the scene very quickly.
It was understood that officers had Tasers but they were not discharged.
Reports circulating yesterday that the man had been attempting to conduct an armed robbery have been denied by Debenhams head office.
A Debenhams spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that a man was detained by police in our Belfast store and the matter has now been handed over to them.
“We take the safety of our employees and customers extremely seriously and the authorities were called as soon as our security staff became suspicious.”
Police have said they received no reports of an armed robbery.
A spokesman for the PSNI said in a statement yesterday: “A 22-year-old man has been arrested after a report of an incident at business premises in the Royal Avenue area this afternoon.
“At around 2.20pm, it was reported that a man was seen acting suspiciously in a shop in the area. “It is believed that the man was in possession of a suspected firearm during the incident.
“The man was arrested shortly afterwards and was taken to Musgrave Custody Suite where he is currently helping police with their inquiries.
“The suspected firearm has been recovered by police.
“As is normal procedure, the Office of the Police Ombudsman has been informed.”
