Siege at former police station to evict squatters

Officers armed with a battering ram today regained possession of a former police station which had been occupied by squatters.

Around 40 police officers broke down the door of the former station in Arbour Square, Stepney, which squatters took over in December. The three-storey building, worth up to £2million, is being sold to a developer and the police need to regain possession before it can be sold.

Most of the squatters - as many as 30 - are believed to have left the building last night after receiving a letter warning them that eviction would take place today.

Embarrassingly for Scotland Yard, the squatters had been evicted once before in December, but moved back in several days later. Police are expected to put a guard on the building to prevent a repeat before the sale is completed.

One of the squatters who left today, a 25-year-old Polish woman who gave her name only as Marta, said: "We had a good time here. It was an adventure, but I do not know where we will all go now."

The station closed in 1999, having once housed alleged IRA terrorists and the Kray twins.