ARMED police were called following concerns for welfare of a woman in Christchurch on Sunday morning.

Officers swooped on a property at Belvedere Road, blocking off access at Arthur Lane and to the station from Stour Road.

Residents said they saw armed police arrive just after 9.30am and were told to return to their homes.

Resident Margaret Pardy said she was returning home from mass in Purewell with her husband when she saw an ambulance on Stour Road, at about 10.30am.

“I have never seen so many police officers in my life,” she said.

A spokesperson for Dorset Police said: “It was reported that a woman had made threats to her own safety and those of others.

“She was subsequently taken to a place of safety.”

One resident, who asked not to be named, said she understood a woman at a block of flats threatened she had a gun.