ARMED officers were called to three addresses in Darlington within the space of 24 hours.

The first incident happened on Friday night when a three-hour stand-off at an address in Haughton led to the arrest of one man.

Early on Saturday morning, another team of armed officers were deployed to a house on Station Road in the North Road area of town.

And the third incident saw several armed officers seal off two roads in the Denes area for more than an hour while scores of people lined the streets to watch the unfolding drama.

Durham Police have not released details on any of the three armed incidents since Friday night when the force alerted people to the incident on Stockton Road after some residents had to be evacuated from their homes.

Saturday afternoon's drama started just before 6pm when armed officers were called to a terraced house on Surtees Street. A 90minute stand-off ended when several occupants left the property with their hands in the air and made their way towards waiting police officers.

The first out of the building, a man who appeared to be in his mid 20s, was the only person to be arrested and taken away from the scene by Durham Police.

Minutes later a woman came out and was searched by police.

A second woman then emerged from the building to be searched before both were then allowed to leave the cordoned off area.

Two young males were the last to leave the property – both were searched and released by officers at the scene.

One on the women who left the house came out carrying a bottle of Jagermeister and met up with friends and family on the outside of the police cordon.

Just after 7pm, four armed police officers entered the house to carry out a search. They left the property a short time later. An officer with a sniffer dog then entered the house to search the premises. One resident, who was unable to return to their house during the operation, said: "I don't really know how it all started, I popped out to walk to the shop and when I returned there was armed police everywhere and I couldn't get back to my house."

A police car remained at outside the house on Sunday afternoon while police continued their investigations.

There are few details about the incident on Station Road other than one of the addresses was targeted by armed officers at around 8am and remained on the scene for less than half an hour before driving away.

Durham Police have issued no further details about Friday night's incident which resulted in police, fire crews, paramedics and gas engineers being called to a serious incident on Stockton Road.

People living in the area were evacuated and took shelter in the Highland Laddie pub. They were allowed home at about 11.30pm and the cordon was taken down.

Leanne Walker, whose daughter was allegedly attacked by the man, said: “He grabbed my daughter and tried to steal her phone but I managed to knock him off his bike and get her away from him.”

One man was arrested at the scene following the four-hour stand-off and one woman is believed to have been treated in hospital for a head injury.

In what proved to be a busy weekend for police in Darlington, officers also closed off a section of North Road, near to the new Aldi store, on Saturday afternoon to deal with a serious incident after a man was spotted perched on the top of the fence running along the railway bridge.