MOTORISTS travelling on a North Yorkshire road were shocked to see armed officers stopping and surrounding vehicles.
But yesterday's activity was simply part of a regular exercise and training run by North Yorkshire Police.
Officers were practising their Armed Vehicle Interception Point techniques on the road between Escrick and Stillingfleet, off the A19.
A police spokesman said: "It was one of the routine exercises that we have.
"There's a lot of refresher training, keeping officers up-to-date with the new developments and techniques.
"They have favourite areas for particular exercises, we try and strike a balance between it being real enough to be of use to the officers, but causing minimum of disruption to the public.
"It's inevitable that they will perhaps get in people's way, or someone might worry why there's armed officers around."
Updated: 10:26 Thursday, May 22, 2003
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