Dartford woman held hostage and seriously injured

A woman has been taken to hospital with serious injuries consistent with gunshot wounds after being held hostage at her home in Kent.

Police were called to Priory Road, Dartford at 12:45 BST on Saturday when neighbours reported hearing gunshots.

Witnesses described how officers cordoned off the road and ordered people to stay inside their homes.

Following an hour-long stand-off, neighbours described hearing two rounds of gunshots.

Kent Police confirmed a man and a woman had been taken to a London hospital with serious injuries consistent with gunshot wounds.

“Officers, along with a trained police negotiator, attended and attempted to engage with a man inside the address,” a spokesperson for the force said.

“Police are treating this as an isolated incident and are not looking for anyone else in connection with it.”

Officers remain at the scene and enquiries are ongoing to determine what happened.

Witnesses who lived nearby said the woman had been “held hostage” by a man at the back of the property.

One woman, who wished to remain anonymous, described the scene as “chilling”.

“I was in the house and my husband and two girls were out – they couldn’t get back home,” she said.

“I went out and was told ‘get back – you must stay indoors’. I went to the garden where I could see more.”

About an hour after police entered the property, she said she heard gunshots before a person was carried out on a stretcher.

“It was pandemonium”, she added. “I heard five gunshots – a pause and then another five.”