London Road Sheffield: Here's why a police helicopter and armed officers were in Nether Edge last night

Thousands of residents in Nether Edge looked out their windows at around 10pm yesterday evening (March 22) to see a police helicopter idling above for around 20 minutes, raising rumours on Facebook community groups that a manhunt was underway.

South Yorkshire Police has now confirmed the chopper was positioned over London Road, as part of an incident where four other squad cars on blues-and-twos and armed response officers were also dispatched.

The force has revealed the huge response, which saw a resident’s car pulled over, was in a search for a suspected stash of drugs – but they found nothing.

A spokesperson said: “Officers attended after receiving information from a member of the public that there may have been drugs in a location. Armed officers attended as a precaution and searches were carried out but nothing was found and no one was arrested.”