Men wearing masks and carrying fake firearms detained in Surrey

Five men were detained in Surrey on Saturday night after the RCMP received reports about a group of males wearing masks and carrying firearms.

The incident took place at approximately 8:40 pm when police were advised that the group of men had been spotted in the underground parkade near the Wallmart of the Guildford Mall.

Members of the Surrey RCMP attended the scene and located the group of males, some of which were still wearing masks, and carrying what appeared to be pistols in their hands.

According to a release from the RCMP, the group of males was detained at gun point, and it was determined that the handguns that they had were actually imitation firearms.

The group of males were just playing around, and could not give any legitimate reason for their actions in the parkade.

“The Surrey R.C.M.P. would like to remind the public that many fake or imitation firearms, until closely examined, are very hard to tell the difference between them and real firearms,” they said in a release.

“Even trained police officers can not tell the difference between some of the imitation firearms and the real thing until they are closely examined and until the weapon can be identified as being an imitation firearm, that the police have to deal with the situation as if the weapon was real.”

Editor’s note: This post was amended on October 16, 2016. It originally said the five men in question had been “arrested” when they had in fact been “detained”.