Primary pupils were forced to shelter inside their school after a gun was fired at police officers.

Police had been called to a domestic incident at a detached bungalow opposite the playground of South Park Primary School at 11.45am yesterday.

Twenty officers, dressed in body armour and brandishing pistols and machine guns, stormed the house in Holmwood Road, Ilford at 1.50pm, accompanied by police dogs, but emerged 15 minutes later without appearing to detain anyone.

A Met Police spokesman later confirmed at 3pm that they had arrested a suspect outside London.

Children at the school were kept inside the main building until 2.45pm as events unfolded.

One neighbour, of Holmwood Road, said: “I went to pick up my kids from school for lunch at 12.15pm and there were armed police in the road outside screaming to get back in the house.

“They kept all of the school kids inside for lunch. The playground is right next to where the police were standing with guns. It was very frightening.”

Police also cordoned off a section of Green Lane, by Highbury Gardens, and two ambulances and a fire incident response unit were on standby as the armed officers dealt with the threat.

Neighbours said a man in his 30s lived at the house with his wife and two young children, who went to private school. The family had lived there for 10 years

One man, waiting to pick his child up from school, said: “I know the guy who lives there, he is a friend.

“He is a businessman but has been off sick recently. He is a nice guy.”