POLICE have been scouring an area of woodland day and night as part of a major series of firearms-related searches across the county.

Residents said police have been investigating the area of woodland in Listerhills for two to three days using a wide array of equipment.

A row of floodlights have even been set up on the perimeter of the woods to light up the woodland at night to allow searches to continue.

Police said the search is part of a West Yorkshire wide operation being led by the Firearms Prevent Team.

A number of police vehicles as well as the floodlights have been in playing fields behind Archibald Street and Legrams Street, where a dense 19,000 sq metre woods is located.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “West Yorkshire Police officers are currently searching a large part of land in the Listerhills area of Bradford in support of an ongoing force-wide operation led by the Firearms Prevent Team.

"It is one of a series of searches across West Yorkshire with others planned.”

One resident in Legrams Street said police have been in the woods for two or three days, and have also been working overnight.

He said armed response officers have been on the scene, and officers searched the woods all night. He said they were using "metal detectors, shovels and poles" as part of the search.

The man said he has good views over the park and has not seen anything suspicious occurring, and there have not been any incidents in the park for a number of years.

He said there is only vegetation in the woods, and on the other side is a large perimeter fence around the Freemans Grattan Holdings warehouse.

One rumour circulating in the neighbourhood is that it is a woman who went missing a few weeks ago and has not been seen since, but he thought armed officers and around 20 police vehicles were "a bit much for a missing person".

Another resident said he has been in the woods on a previous occasion and described it as "a bit creepy".

Other residents said it was a "really quiet area" and were surprised by the scale of the police presence at the scene.

The playing fields are bordered by housing on two sides, the woods at the northern end and the BT Openreach regional training school to the west.

There is a play area with a slide, swings and roundabout at the southern end, and a football pitch with goal posts on the main field.

West Yorkshire Police confirmed on Saturday that the operation was still ongoing, and that further updates were unlikely until its conclusion.