Police sealed off the area for several hours

Officers surrounded a flat above a shop in the village of Cotgrave, near Bingham, after reports a man with a handgun was holding two hostages.

After an hour, a woman and a boy were able to leave as police negotiators urged the man, allegedly armed with an airgun, to surrender.

He emerged onto a balcony and was fired on by police using baton rounds after he allegedly threatened them.

Locked doors

A Nottinghamshire Police spokeswoman told BBC News Online a man, in his thirties, had been arrested and was being questioned.

Police had cordoned off a row of shops during the siege, the spokeswoman said.

People in the flats above had been asked to remain inside and lock their doors.

A teenage boy told BBC News he had fled a gunman after being threatened by him on the way to the shops.

"This guy just started hobbling over to me, waving his gun at me and saying, 'Come over here!'" he said.

"I just ran around the corner - proper scared," the boy told BBC News.

"I have never been more scared," he added.