Armed police swoop in on two schoolboys playing with toy Nerf guns and foam bullets in park

Two schoolboys found themselves at the centre of a mistaken police swoop this weekend after being spotted holding “guns” in a public park.

Officers descended on Brighton’s Greenleas Recreation Ground and confronted the children, aged 12 and 13.

Police ordered the youngsters to get on the ground and put down their “weapons” during the dramatic encounter.

The boys immediately threw their toys to the floor, shouting back that they were “just fake guns” and “just Nerf guns”.

Some 10 police personnel and at least five police cars surrounded the children after a mistaken bystander lodged a call about a “suspected firearm”.

But armed responders only realised the guns were toys when they saw the foam bullets which had been fired.

One of the boys’ mothers returned home from work that day to find a police officer speaking with her partner.

The mother, identified only as Annette, told BBC Radio Sussex: “My son is very shaken up… He doesn’t want to play in the park any more.

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“I was so scared – it was unbelievable,” she added.

Annette said her 13-year-old son is now struggling to sleep – and may require counselling.

“I think it was a little bit blown out of proportion. It actually looked like an American action movie,” she said.

“I can only imagine how the boys were feeling at that moment.”

A Sussex Police spokesman said: “Police received a report of young people with a suspected firearm in Hangleton Way at about 5.30pm on Saturday, January 25.

“Officers, including armed officers, attended, where it was established that these were children playing with a toy gun.

“Words of advice were given to the two boys and a parent, and the police response was stood down shortly after.”

The force also issued a reminder that toy weapons should be two-tone in colour to “clearly demarcate them from being an illegal firearm.”