ARMED POLICE foiled an audacious bid to hold up a warehouse in Feltham last weekend, by shooting out the tyres of the robbers' truck as they tried to escape with a load of high value computer equipment.

At 9am on Saturday morning, (January 31), six men, armed with a semi automatic pistol entered the Securicor Omega International warehouse, in the Central Park Estate, Feltham.

Ten members of the male and female staff working at the site, were herded into an empty lorry container at gunpoint.

The gang then loaded pallets of computer equipment into the back of a stolen ten ton truck, using a fork lift, unaware that officers from the Metropolitan Police's Central Task Force and firearms unit were already waiting for them outside.

According to a spokesman for the Met, police "acting on intelligence" were in the middle of a pre-planned operation to intercept the robbery.

Satisfied with their haul, the robbers tried to drive off, but came under fire as they left the site.

So-called Hatton' rounds (bullets made from a special compound fired from a shot gun specifically designed for bursting tyres) were shot at the vehicle's wheels, disabling them.

Police then moved in to arrest the gang, and free the ten shaken warehouse workers, who were unhurt. The suspects, in their 20s and 30s, were then taken to a west London police station.

No shots were fired other than the Hatton' rounds.

The value of the computer equipment is still being assessed.

Six men, Lee Anthony Cameron, 44, unemployed from Belvedere House, Lemon Grove, Feltham, Jonathan Aldridge, 34, unemployed of no fixed address, Ablay Jonathan Diop, 29, unemployed, from Hackney, Harry Harris, 23, unemployed from Islington, John Sheehan, 23, unemployed of no fixed address, Jamie Shields, aged 23, unemployed of no fixed address, all appeared at Feltham Magistrates Court on Monday, February 2, charged with robbery.

They were held in custody, to appear again at Isleworth Crown Court on February 10.

l THREE armed masked men were disturbed by a security guard at the LSG site on Faggs Road, Feltham, at around 1am on February 2.

Though they got away apparently empty handed, police are still appealing for information about the crime.

If you know anything, call Hounslow police on 020 8577 1212.