ARMED police raided the quiet hamlet of Seend Cleeve to arrest an escaped mental patient with a history of violence who was hiding in a house in the High Street.

Officers equipped with baton guns surrounded the house on Thursday afternoon and the police helicopter hovered overhead.

Startled onlookers saw officers arm themselves and take up positions in front of the house.

A few moments later a man, said to be of Mediterranean appearance, appeared at the door and was swiftly seized by officers and handcuffed.

A neighbour who witnessed the arrest said: "The first thing I saw was this Mitsubishi 4x4 pull up outside the house, but I thought no more of it. Then the helicopter was overhead and my wife told me there were police cars in the street.

"They grabbed the bloke and held a gun to his back. They asked him if he had any sharp instrument on him. They handcuffed him and took him away.

"A bit later a breakdown truck came along and towed off the Mitsubishi. It was all a bit of a shock. It's not the kind of thing you expect to happen in a place like Seend Cleeve."

Wiltshire police said they had been asked by Surrey Police to carry out the arrest after a 47-year-old man had been reported missing from the mental health unit at the East Surrey Hospital in Redhill, where he had been undergoing assessment for a mental illness.

Inspector Pete Bowerbank of Devizes police said: "We had quite a lot of intelligence about this man's violent past and had been warned he could have been armed with a bayonet.

"Because of that, officers were authorised to carry baton guns. As it turned out, the man gave himself up peacefully. He came out of the house voluntarily and was detained by officers. No weapon was found on him.

"He was taken to Melksham police station custody suite where he was detained overnight. Officers from Sussex Police came the following day to take him back to Hastings, where he originally comes from.

"It appears he was in the village to look up friends from the past, previous acquaintances. It appears he had been on the road for some months, looking up old friends like this."

Mr Bowerbank said that the man's family had been trying to make contact with him for some time and were relieved he was now going to get the care and treatment he needed.

The couple at whose house the man had called, thought to be Rob George and his partner, Sascha, were not available for comment at the time of going to press.

Baton guns, which became famous for their use in riot control in Northern Ireland have been used in armed siege situations in Wiltshire.

In October 2002, dog handlers and officers armed with baton guns were among police units deployed at a siege at a house in Trowbridge, where a man was believed to have been armed with a sawn-off shotgun. Subsequently a 46-year-old man was arrested and charged with firearms offences.

Seend Cleeve, with its quiet situation and beautifully located near to the Kennet and Avon Canal, is a mecca for walkers and cyclists. The most newsworthy events that have taken place in the village in the last few years have involve flooding after boaters have left lock gates open.