POLICE used a specially trained unit to break into a house in Derry following a report of firearm being present.
Members of the covertly trained Special Operations Branch were drafted in to assist detectives from the PSNI’s Reactive and Organised Crime Branch.
Special Operations Branch are trained for a multitude of tasks which as a “means of entry team” and also carrying out “hard stops” on suspected terrorists carrying explosives or firearms.
Their identities are jealously guarded by police and they are referred to only as ‘Oscars’ during court proceedings.
Local residents reported seeing “heavily armed and masked men” force their way into the house at Rosemount Avenue on Thursday night after breaking down the front door.
PSNI Detective Sergeant Finlay from the Reactive and Organised Crime Branch said the search was conducted as police believed a suspected firearm was in the house.
He said the item was later identified as a pellet gun and “enquiries are continuing.”
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