Police investigating a disturbance in a quiet cul-de-sac have recovered a suspected handgun.

Neighbours in Orchard Place, Maidstone, reported waking up to the sound of shouting, screaming and clanging metal shortly before midnight.

According to witnesses a metal baseball bat and knife were also found in the road, off Bower Place, near Tonbridge Road, after the people involved ran off.

A woman, who lives in Orchard Place but wanted to remain anonymous, said: "We didn't see much but heard it, our neighbours also came out and we called the police.

"They are saying three men broke the door down to the house, dragged a man out in his underwear and were hitting him over the head with the bat," — A resident of Orchard Place

"We heard a metal clanging, loads of shouting in a foreign language, then an English voice shouted 'leave it, come on'. When we went out the door there was a metal baseball bat on the ground and a phone had been dropped and the front door had been battered through. There was blood up the wall and door.

"We waited half an hour for the police to come, they drove past us once because they couldn't find the road. When they finally walked down and spoke to us and looked around they found a gun near the door and asked us all to go back down the road.

"There was no one around when we came out, the house next door found a knife in his garden."

She added police have taken bags of evidence evidence out of the property, forensics have turned up and the road remains closed with some people unable to get to work.

She said: "We spoke to the neighbours this morning, a few had been interviewed, they are saying three men broke the door down to the house, dragged a man out in his underwear and were hitting him over the head with the bat, when the next door neighbour shouted out the window the men ran off and the man on the floor went back in the house.

"We didn't approach him. When the police arrived it seems the man that was injured went out the back door and garden gate and up the road towards the pub."

A police spokesman said officers were called at 1.05am to reports of a disturbance in Orchard Place, off Bower Place.

He added: "Officers attended the scene and as part of inquiries searched a property in the road, where quantities of cannabis were seized.

"Two men, aged 27 and 36 and from Maidstone, were later arrested on suspicion of being involved in the supply of cannabis. They remain in custody. "

"Crime scene investigators have also recovered an item located close to the property, resembling a handgun. This has been sent off for forensic tests."

A cordon remained in place for much of today while officers carried out their investigation but has now been lifted.

A man, who lives on nearby Upper Fant Road, said he heard a female screaming loudly at around 1am.

The man, who did not wish to be named, said: "I heard the scream so I came out and put my head out out of the door.

"I couldn't see anything because it was raining but it sounded like a woman screaming."