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Crime

08th Aug 2022

Family finds Uzi machine gun among huge cache of weapons dumped in London river

Steve Hopkins

The weapons were found in Catford after a family friend slipped on a metal object

A family enjoying a Saturday afternoon paddle in a London river made a shocking discovery after slipping on a metal object in the water.

Ryan Ball, 32, was at the picturesque River Pool in Catford with his children when they discovered a huge cache of discarded weapons on the river floor.

The haul included what appeared to be a revolver and an Uzi submachine gun along with what looked like bullet magazines and a quantity of ammunition.

Ball said: “We were at river view walk where we regularly go with our children, and my sons were playing with a 15-year-old boy, James, when he slipped on which appeared to be a magazine from a gun.

“He then started to search around in the water, and then one after the other he started to pull out everything you can see in the pictures.”

Ball, who was at the local swimming spot with his three children, aged eleven, five and one, then called police.

Officers later retrieved the weapons and are due to “sweep the river for any more”, Ball said.

A Metropolitan Police Service spokesperson, confirmed officers attended the scene at Winsford Road at 4.49pm “to reports of firearms found in a river”.

“A firearm and ammunition were recovered and removed from the scene.”

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