Coronavirus: Armed police called to 'knight' with sword

Police posed for pictures after talking to the man

Armed police were called after a man dressed as a medieval knight with a 3ft sword was spotted out for his daily exercise.

Three members of the firearms unit were sent after a family saw Lennon Thomas walking at Hendre Lake in St Mellons, Cardiff.

Onlookers said he was confronted at gunpoint and looked shocked when told to put down the blade.

Mr Thomas apologised for a "lapse in judgment".

"Perhaps it was a little stupid of me to bring the sword as from a distance it does look realistic," said the 20-year-old Dungeons and Dragons fan.

"However the rest of my outfit was simply me practising for a hobby of mine.

"Life is a lot more fun when you don't care how weird you are.

"I joked to some passers by who saw the incident that if I were in America I would have been shot on sight.

"I got a good laugh out of it all in the end."

South Wales Police said they were called to the incident at 15:10 on Wednesday following a report from a member of the public.

"Officers were deployed to the scene where they located a young man who was in fancy dress carrying a toy sword," said a force spokeswoman.

"No criminal offences were committed and the man was given suitable advice."

The man said he was trying out a new outfit

Mike James, 31, was walking around the beauty spot with his wife Heather, 32, and son Theo, three, when he saw the drama unfold.

"The whole thing was really surreal, he looked like something out of [action video game] Assassin's Creed," he said.

'Good as gold'

"We saw this guy walking around in this knight's outfit and carrying a sword.

"I thought 'that's a bit weird', but I thought he must be an actor or something so I didn't think much more of it."

Mr James said about five minutes later, armed police arrived and said they had reports about "a suspicious-looking person".

"I told them it looked like he was doing laps of the lake and that he should be coming around shortly," he said.

"The police ordered him to put the sword down and then they confronted him.

"They had a chat with him for a couple of minutes and apparently the guy told them he was trying out a new outfit and he was walking around the lake to get used to the weight.

"The armed police were good as gold and even had a picture with him afterwards before letting him go on his way."