Three people have been arrested by police investigating a raid on a Northamptonshire bingo hall. The Gala Bingo had been the target of a team of robbers. Three staff were tied up, assulted and held hostage in a nightmare attack at the club in High Street, Kettering. It was reported that a significant sum of cash was stolen in the raid.

A 34-year-old Kettering man was arrested in connection with the incident and later bailed. Two others have been arrested in Leicester.

The attack on the bingo club took place at 9.40am on Wednesday 5th May. Four 'smartly-dressed' males knocked on the door of the club and rounded up members of staff who were in the building.

The two men and one woman were taken to the General Hospital in Kettering after the attack and all three were released shortly afterwards. No details as to how much money was stolen in the attack were revealed however it was thought to be a "substantial" amount.

Following the incident forensic teams were called in to investigate and the hall was closed for the rest of the day. Chief Inspector Andy Collins, commented during the investigation: "I'd like to reassure people that incidents of this type are very rare, but when they do happen we treat them very seriously indeed. We have a team of officers working flat out to catch the people responsible for this despicable crime. We are urging anybody who was in the area between 9.40am and 10am and thinks they saw anything suspicious to contact police."

Detective Inspector Andy Nichols, added: "Reading between the lines, this has happened shortly after they have opened up. I would imagine it will be a substantial amount of cash. We will be trawling all of the CCTV in the area. We take matters like this very seriously."

Local residents and business owners were shocked by the attack.

Bon Marche employee, Debbie Annett, commented: "I had a lady say to me that there was loads of police cars down here but they didn't know what had happened. You don't expect to see this, especially at a bingo hall at this time of day. There is never usually anything like this. It is a quiet place.

Another employee in the high street store, Sophie Clarke added: "We just heard the cars and the sirens, and saw the police helicopter coming down as well."

A Gala Bingo spokesman stated: "As always our main concern is for the safety of our staff, and we are working closely with police. We took the staff in for observation and they were obviously very shaken by the incident, but they have now been released."