There was confusion today in Rothbury, Northumberland as armed police pursued what they believed to be a crazed bald bloke with a gun but eventually realised that Raoul Moat was just a very difficult Countdown Conundrum.
As police became aware of this information they decided to change their tactics from sealing off the market town and telling everybody to stay indoors to phoning Susie Dent from Countdown's Dictionary Corner to ask her to help solve the mystery.
Dent immediately got to work but claimed the vowel to consonant ratio of 5 to 4 and the lack of the letter 'E' made it virtually impossible to make another 9 letter word, especially in less than 30 seconds.
The best she could come up with was a six letter word 'Trauma' before she turned to Rachel Riley and asked her for one from the top and any other five.
Police are still investigating and hope to crack the conundrum within the next 24 hours. However, Northumberland police's Chief Supt Mark Dennett has made an appeal to the general public for any information or help they might be able to provide.
'This is an incredibly hard conundrum' he said 'and we urge the public to give up their Sudukos and crosswords for five minutes to unscramble the letters R A O U L M O A T and contact us with their anagrams.'
'Although if you send us anything rude or offensive we'll have you arrested for wasting police time.'
