Armed police protecting London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan left a bag filled with firearms on a street outside his south London home in a major security lapse.
The holdall was discovered at around 9.30pm on Tuesday – the same night feral youths were running riot in Clapham – and contained an MP5 carbine, a Glock pistol, a Taser and ammunition.
A pregnant woman first spotted the bag and kicked it to investigate before alerting her partner, Jordan Griffiths, who took it inside.
Mr Griffiths, a scaffolder, said told The Sun: “My partner saw the bag sitting in the road by the kerbside and became suspicious.
“She went over to it and kicked it to see what it might be. But it was really heavy and didn’t move.”
He added: “It was lucky one of the guns inside didn’t go off or else she and our baby due next month could have been shot and killed.”
Mr Griffiths said he initially believed the bag contained coins.
He said “I went out to have a look and picked up the bag and it was really heavy.
Armed police protecting London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan left a bag filled with firearms on a street outside his south London home
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GETTY
“I took it upstairs and put it on my bed and opened the bag up. I could not believe my eyes.
“There was a handgun in the front pocket and a sub-machine gun in the main part of the bag.
“There was also a Taser in there and in the back of the bag there was another pocket which felt like it was full of bullets.”
He said he photographed the weapons before contacting police, who arrived within minutes to recover them.
SADIQ KHAN – READ THE LATEST:
PICTURED: MP5 submachine gun similar to the weapon found in the bag
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GETTY
“When they arrived they were really shocked. They looked through the bag carefully and hurriedly took them away,” he said.
Mr Griffiths added he was told the weapons had been left by one of the Mayor’s protection officers.
“I asked the police whether there might be a reward for finding the guns and one of them said ‘We will give you a bag of sweets’,” he said.
He warned the consequences could have been far worse.
The Met Police’s Directorate of Professional Standards has launched an investigation
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PA“There’s a crack house nearby and if someone from there had found the guns they would have been sold on the street and used for killing people.”
The Met Police’s Directorate of Professional Standards has launched an investigation.
All five officers involved have been removed from frontline duties.
A Met spokesperson said: “At around 21:40hrs, a member of the public called police after finding a bag containing Met-issued firearms and a Taser on a street in South London.
“Within seven minutes of the call officers arrived at the scene and safely recovered the items.
“We are urgently reviewing the circumstances of this incident and recognise the concern it may cause.
“At this stage it is believed the bag was misplaced by on-duty officers a short time before the member of the public located it.”