Three men have appeared in court after armed police were called to a busy Aberdeen city centre street following reports of a person with a gun.
Two men waiting at a bus stop outside Repsol Sinopec on Holburn Street were surrounded by armed police officers and pinned to the ground yesterday.
A bystander claimed that someone had a gun and both men were loaded into the back of a van.
Police later revealed that a firearm recovered was a toy gun.
Three men have now appeared in private at Aberdeen Sheriff Court in connection with the matter.
William Baxter, 50, Kevin Leslie, 46, and Grant MacLeod, 41, all faced a single charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear or alarm.
The trio, whose general addresses were all given in court documents as Aberdeen, did not enter a plea during the behind-closed-doors hearing.
They were all released on bail while the case against them was committed for further examination.
A date has yet to be fixed for their next appearance over the matter.
The incident took place at about 3.30pm, with the street busy with children who had just finished school.
Three police cars stopped at the bus stop, and armed officers jumping out.
They moved quickly, said witnesses, and the scene was cleared of police and vehicles within about 15 minutes.
Following the incident Inspector Rod Smith, of Queen Street Police Office, said: “Around 3.25pm officers attended Holburn Street in Aberdeen following a report of a man in possession of a firearm.
“The item was recovered and was established to be a toy gun.
“The incident was brought to a safe conclusion and there was no wider threat to the public.”
This article originally appeared on the Evening Express website. For more information, read about our new combined website.