BREAKING NEWS: Girl, 13, arrested with machine gun after raid on south London flat

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A 13-year-old girl has been arrested by armed Met police after a sub-machinegun was found in her wardrobe.

The weapon was discovered when a specialist anti-gang crime squad of 15 officers with hydraulic battering rams and combat shields raided the girl's home in Croydon.

She was detained on suspicion of possessing a firearm, an offence which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for adults and three for juveniles.

The raid, which police say is likely to be followed by further arrests, will prompt renewed fears that older criminals are involving children in gun and gang crime and using them to look after weapons.

Police declined to comment on the background to the arrest but said the raid was part of an operation by the Aries squad in Croydon which targets criminal gangs.

A Met spokesman said: "A 13-year-old girl was arrested on suspicion of possessing a firearm and taken to a south London police station. The weapon was a sub-machinegun. She has been bailed and further arrests are anticipated."

Sergeant Darin Birmingham, who led the raid, added: "We received information that the young man living here, who is a known gang member, had access to firearms."

In the raid yesterday afternoon, armed officers sealed off the Monks Hill Estate in Shirley and people were told to stay in their houses. A hydraulic battering ram was used to force the door of the flat where the girl was in Tedder Road.