THREE suspected terrorists were arrested after armed police stormed commercial premises in Morecambe and unearthed a stash of firearms.

Scores of officers are said to have ‘ripped through’ Link Van Hire on Mellishaw Lane following a police investigation into dissident Irish Republican activity in the resort.

Lancashire police confirmed that two men were captured at the premises, where two handguns and a rifle were recovered at 2.10pm on Sunday.

Shortly afterwards a third man was arrested in connection with possession of a firearm on Westgate.

As the Citizen went to press, the men were still in custody, where they can be detained for up to seven days under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Staff at the nearby Cumberland View Volkswagen garage, on Mellishaw Lane, were trapped in the store for three hours when police cordoned off the area. Three employees were warned by police not to leave and customers were not allowed into the garage in case a firearm was discharged.

Eyewitnesses reported that riot vans, unmarked cars and several police vehicles surrounded the yard as officers armed with revolvers and machine guns stormed the site.

They were said to be ‘scouring’ the site before hand-cuffing two men and putting them into separate police cars.

“Mellishaw Lane was cordoned off, then I saw loads of police ripping through the Link premises. It was scary – I have never seen anything on a scale like that before, although things like this have happened with bombs and explosives being found on wagons at Heysham port”, says an eyewitness.

The operation followed other raids in Yorkshire and London and was part of a joint operation between British and Irish police forces investigating dissident Republican activity in Limerick.

A number of arrests have also been made in Limerick in recent months.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s anti-terrorist branch have taken over the investigation from Lancashire Police and will be questioning the three men throughout the week.

When approached by the Citizen, the manager at Link Van Hire refused to comment.

It is not the first time suspect terrorist activities have rocked the resort. In 1994, two tons of IRA explosives were found in a lorry which had come off the ferry at Heysham.