THE Prince of Wales pub in Tilehurst has lost its alcohol licence after armed police were "trapped" in the boozer following a serious incident.

Licensing chiefs at Reading Borough Council agreed to the revocation following calls from Thames Valley Police that the landlord and his family were not fit to run the venue.

Among the string of incidents listed in their case against the School Road pub was a fight that spilled out on to surrounding streets that allegedly involved a knife and pool cues being used as weapons.

Four people have been arrested and bailed on suspicion of affray but no charges have yet been brought.

On the night in question, January 9, two armed response officers arrived to deal with a 999 call about a fight with weapons.

After entering the pub they found themselves trapped and resorted to pushing the panic buttons on their radios to call for immediate backup.

Body cam footage showed at the licensing applications committee meeting today showed the moment attending officers were sworn at and verbally abused while trying to free their trapped colleagues.

PC Paul Leader, one of the almost 30 police personnel called to deal with the incident, told the committee he had never had to use his panic button in his four and a half years on the force.

He said: "This is the absolute 'this has gone wrong' button."

Mike King, licensing officer for the force, said in the committee: "To necessitate the police to force and entry to a premises following a serious public order incident where two officers were trapped by hostile customers, who had to call for urgent assistance, coupled with the other incidents outlined in this application, Thames Valley Police consider the revocation of the premises licence is the only appropriate option."

Licensing officer for the council Richard French pointed to issues with staff not knowing and said: "We find the people charged with running the premises do not what the licensing objectives are.

"How can they enforce the licensing objectives if they do not know what they are?"

However Matthew Phipps, speaking on behalf of landlord Andrew Parker and his family, said council and police were "pushing unnecessarily" in their report and added: "If you read the [committee] papers and the papers alone this is a shoddy premises."

But he questioned discrepancies in the way some incidents had been described and pointed to numerous charity and family friendly events which had been run without issue at the same pub.

Regulars also turned out in support and told the committee their favourite watering hole was a "community asset" and one frequent customer, Steve Leaver, said: "The management is good.

"Look at the events they put on, they raise money for charity, they have done so much for the community it would be shame if that was lost."

After more than an hour's deliberation the committee decided to revoke the licence on the grounds of 11 points including the presence of weapons, obstruction of police and that neighbours had to dial 999 as a result of disorder at the pub.