Armed police stop and search a video game fanatic
A video game fanatic was surrounded by armed police at Birmingham Airport when he was spotted holding a toy rifle and ammunition.
Alarm bells rang for officers when they saw the man in fancy dress presumably on route to a video game festival nearby.
Witnesses described the gamer as looking petrified and apologetic when officers with real guns surrounded him in the busy passenger hub at 10am on Easter Monday.
The gamer was petrified when four armed officers surrounded him and gave him some serious words of advice
Kyle Evans, a gaming journalist said: 'Well done to the cops for getting on it, they did a good job.
'The guy was wearing a helmet and was in blacked-out clothes with magazine-type holders round his waist and a gun which looked fairly realistic.
'He looked very sorry and worried.'
Kyle saws four armed police and one unarmed officer pull the young man to one side and issue him with some serious words of advice.
The bizarre incident happened at Birmingham Airport as the gamer was on his way to a gaming festival (file photo)
He said the officers appeared 'quite annoyed' as they spoke to him about walking below a monorail link dressed as though he was prepared for armed combat.
Kyle tweeted the picture from his account @itsKapoow with the caption: 'Some guy thought it was clever to walk through Birmingham Airport with a gun.
'Five armed police. What a fool.'
@JustJamieHDG replied to the photo saying: 'Dude I was right next to him when it happened..... utter disrespect to the staff there.... the poor lad was scared to death!!!'
Security has been at an elevated state in airports throughout the UK
A witness said the gamer appeared to be 'scared to death' when police swooped at around 10am on Easter Monday.
Mr Evans said he thought the young man was heading to Insomnia60 - the UK's biggest gaming festival - and had dressed up for cosplay, short for costume play.
The petrified gamer was still being spoken to as Kyle and his friends, who had been staying a hotel at the airport, caught the monorail to the NEC show.