Rabie el Achwah, 22, was downstairs in his home in Hector Street, Bass Hill, pouring himself a glass of milk before morning prayers at 4.45am, when he was startled by violent thumps on the front door and the front window shattered.

Armed police burst through the front door of the townhouse, in an unprepossessing blond brick complex, causing Rabie to throw the milk carton toward the intruders in fright. Then there was a bright flash as the police fired some kind of flare that blinded him.

The next thing he knew, he was on the ground being handcuffed. His father Khador came downstairs and was similarly detained on the ground with a gun in his face.

Upstairs his wife, two daughters in their teens and a twin boy and girl, aged 11, were startled from sleep. They began coming down the stairs, to be met by a man wearing a balaclava and carrying a gun.

"Go back, go back," he shouted directing them back upstairs. "They were then ordered to sit on the floor, with their hands on the bed," Khador said.