A man with a knife is said to have been Tasered by police in the grounds of a hospital today. (Friday, Oct 2)

Witnesses said the knifeman turned up at the Memorial Medical Centre which is part of Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital.

The rest of the hospital was locked down, trapping staff and patients inside, while police were called to disarm him.

A source said: "I heard he had to be Tasered by police."

It is the third time the hospital in Bell Road has been forced to shut this year.

In May it locked its doors for three hours when it was reported a man armed with a knife was on his way to the building. In that incident the man returned to his home before reaching the hospital.

Earlier this year police were called when a suspected bomb was found on the premises. It was later identified as a lunch box.

A spokesman for Kent Community Health Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital’s minor injury unit, said: “Sittingbourne Minor Injury Unit (MIU) opened later than planned this morning due to an incident at the GP surgery on site. The MIU is now open and ready to see patients."

A police spokesman said: "We were called at 8.39am to a report of a man with a knife at a medical centre in Bell Road, Sittingbourne.

"Officers, including a Taser-trained officer, attended and a man in his 50s from Sittingbourne was arrested on suspicion of affray and for assaulting an emergency worker.

"He was taken to a local hospital as a precaution before being taken into custody where he currently remains pending further enquiries."

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