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Catford: Family’s shock after discovering stash of guns while paddling in south London river

Catford: Family’s shock after discovering stash of guns while paddling in south London river

A family has told of their shock after finding a large cache of guns while paddling in south London.

The Ball family had been enjoying a paddle at the Pool River in Catford when a family friend made the shock discovery by slipping on a metal object in the river.

They then found several guns, including an apparent Uzi sub-machine gun and a revolver, alongside ammunition.

Ryan Ball, 32, told the Telegraph: “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.”

Mr Ball told the paper he was at the nature spot with his three children, aged eleven, five and one, when they made the discovery.

James’s sister, Emelie White wrote on Facebook: “Be careful letting your kids play in the river View walk behind Sainsbury’s in lower Sydenham my brother was over there with a friend and his kid and my brother fell on something and pulled out a gun and found many more police where informed and they are going to sweep the river please be aware when letting your children play in the river”.

The Standard asked the Metropolitan Police if investigators had any information on how the weapons came to be in the river.

“Police were called to Winsford Road, SE6, at 16.49hrs on Saturday, 6 August to reports of firearms found in a river,” a spokesman said.

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