A WOMAN was taken to hospital after she was shot by armed police.

An officer opened fire on the 49-year-old as she waved a gun around in her garden.

She was shot in the arm with a baton gun, which fires plastic bullets, to disarm her.

The woman had earlier threatened to harm herself.

She told police if they did not go to her house in the city, she would go into the road and start shooting.

Six firearms officers swooped on Heath Road, off Quarry Lane, in Wonford, after receiving an emergency call from the woman.

Police say she was shouting and screaming inside the house when they arrived.

They eventually persuaded her to go outside but she did so waving a handgun and threatening to shoot.

Local police officers were also sent to the scene and the force helicopter was deployed to provide aerial assistance to the officers on the ground.

A marksman fired at the woman with a baton gun.

It is understood that she suffered arm injuries.

The woman was taken to the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital by officers, where she was treated. At about midnight she was discharged and returned to police custody.

A spokesman for Devon & Cornwall Police told the Echo: "The woman had a pistol or handgun that she was pointing at police. She was making threats to the officers who believed that she would use the weapon.

"The baton gun was used successfully against the woman.

"The incident was concluded without her firing her weapon."

They confirmed that she was shot in order to disarm her so that she could be arrested.

The woman is currently being held at Heavitree Road Police Station.

She is expected to be interviewed by police soon.

Neighbour Bill Partridge, 62, a former military man, said he looked out of his front window and saw two armed police officers at the corner of the road.

"There were a couple of armed officers there, in helmets and full protective gear and the police helicopter was above," he said.

"The police knocked on the door afterwards to explain what was going on. I assumed it was a training exercise because I did not see anything else and they told me, 'No, it is real'. If I had come out of the house, I could have been killed."

Mr Partridge, who has lived in the road for 17 years, said nothing like that had ever happened there before.

A few neighbours who were returning home as the incident was unfolding were kept back from their homes until it was all over.

The incident, which took place mid-afternoon on Bank Holiday Monday, lasted about an hour.

They fire a single shot at a time and identify their target with a red dot.

It fires circular plastic rounds that can knock down a person from 25 metres when they are aimed at the stomach.

They can kill if aimed at the head or upper body.