SHOPPERS in Brockworth watched on as armed police descended on Tesco yesterday.
But they did not need to worry – it was all part of a training exercise.
Eyewitnesses took to Facebook to question why they had seen armed police officers, water canons and a helicopter in the area.
But a police spokesman said: "Gloucestershire Police ran a formal, pre-planned and controlled police firearms training exercise in the Brockworth area.
"Occasionally training is carried out in public areas to give officers the best suitable environment in which to train for the wide variety of circumstances and locations our officers have to work. The public were in no way in danger."