Churchill watches on as anarchists' hideout is engulfed in flames

Fascinating colourised footage has vividly brought to life one of the most infamous gun battles in British history, showing the future Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the 1911 Sidney Street siege.



The remarkable Newsreel film of the then Home Secretary standing alongside armed police as they surround a blazing Latvian gang's hideout in east London has been digitally remastered for a documentary.



Standing just 100 yards away from a raging gun battle between the heavily armed Latvian anarchists and scores of armed soldiers and police, the astonishing clip shows Churchill peering around a corner and bullets fly - even giving orders to officers.



The incredible black and white footage created a media sensation at the time and was the first time an event like this was ever caught on camera, capturing the true horror of the six hour siege which had the nation gripped.



Also dubbed the Battle of Stepney, it was the final act of a series of events that began three weeks earlier, when three police officers were shot dead by a gang of anarchists from Latvia who were robbing a jewellers.



The incident is being shown in Channel 5 documentary Edwardian Britain in Colour, which takes audiences back to the early 20th century, and comes after Peter Jackson’s extraordinary colourised First World War documentary They Shall Not Grow Old.