Police armed with machine guns were seen forcing entry to the luxury Algarve villa where rapper Mist was shot during a suspected burglary.
The heavily-armed officers went in after friends of the Birmingham-born rapper, 27, told police two to three men with “Irish accents” had broken into the home after driving him to hospital in a UK-plated white Mercedes.
Officers from a GNR rapid response unit, known in Portuguese as a Unidade de Intervencao, were tasked with making sure no armed intruders were inside and the property was safe for police investigators and scenes-of-crime officers to enter.
The spectacular response came after a late-night drama yesterday which ended with Mist, real name Rhys Thomas Sylvester, being shot in the leg.
The award-winning artist, who was sentenced to 14 months in prison in October 2014 after being caught driving without a licence after a police chase on the M6, has now been released from hospital.
It was not initially clear if he had discharged himself or been given the okay to leave hospital, but sources at Faro Hospital confirmed this afternoon/he had been released around 3.30am this morning.
His current whereabouts are unclear.
This afternoon Portuguese police investigators were at the property carrying out a reconstruction and questioning three of the six friends who are understood to have been in the villa at the time.
There has been no official comment yet from the Policia Judiciaria.
Sources said the rapper was with a group of six friends at the villa where the incident occurred - a British man and woman who drove him to hospital and three other pals who are understood to be Portuguese.
One police insider said: “The villa is next to Quinta do Lago's security headquarters and they drove to hospital instead of calling 999.”
Another police source added: "We didn't know what we would find inside the villa, so it was needed to guarantee everybody's safety by making sure the villa was clear of any armed person before Policia Judiciaria inspectors went in.”
Mist is expected to be asked to make a formal police statement as part of the ongoing investigation.
