Detectives investigating the multi-million pound Securitas robbery were last night involved in armed raids across the county where the gang struck.

Kent Police said a number of search warrants had been executed, although the force refused to reveal if any further arrests had been made.

With police activity intensifying, armed officers apparently shot out the wheels of a car and arrested two men on a seafront road near Whitstable, on the north Kent coast.

Meanwhile, in Southborough, near Tunbridge Wells, forensic teams were searching a property after an armed raid on Saturday night.

Detectives believe that with the investigation into Britain's biggest robbery moving at such a fast pace, the robbers are making mistakes.

At a news conference yesterday afternoon, Kent's Assistant Chief Constable Adrian Leppard said he remained very confident that the gang responsible for the raid on the Tonbridge depot would be caught.

He also revealed that the cash found in a white Transit van in an Ashford car park on Friday amounted to £1.3m, ''sizeably more'' than originally thought.

Forensic tests were being carried out on the guns, balaclavas and flak jackets also found in the back of the van, he added.

''During the last 24 hours we have executed a number of search warrants,'' Mr Leppard said.

''A number of those search warrants, because of the risk posed, have involved pre-planned firearms operations.

''I cannot tell you at this stage the result of those searches. I am not able to disclose whether or not other people have been arrested or whether any other property has been recovered.''

He revealed that 14 cages used by the gang to transport the cash haul - up to £50m - had been dumped in fields near Maidstone at 9.30am on Wednesday, hours after the raid.

And he issued another appeal for information about the white Renault lorry used by the robbers - the only significant vehicle yet to be recovered.

The lorry displayed a 54 number plate and had a plywood floor and a white rail inside the cargo area.

Two men, who are aged 55 and 33 and were arrested on Saturday morning in the Maidstone area, have been released on police bail, along with a 49-year-old man held later in the day.

Their release brings the total number of confirmed arrests in connection with the inquiry to six.

Kent Police could not immediately confirm the two arrests in the village of Tankerton, near Whitstable, which according to residents, came amid dramatic circumstances.

Doug Gilbert, 78, said shots had apparently been fired as plain-clothed officers surrounded a car.

''Something was fired, it must have been,'' he said.

''At first I thought there had been a car accident, but it clearly wasn't, having seen these chaps with what looked like firearms.''

In Southborough, neighbours of the house that was raided spoke of the ''incredibly frightening'' moment that armed police stormed the semi-detached house.

Forensic officers were seen carrying several large brown bags from the property, but police have not confirmed whether the raid, or the incident in Tankerton, were connected to the robbery.

Meanwhile, Mr Leppard said police had completed forensic examination at the cash depot in Tonbridge and had handed it back to Securitas.

The company has started its final count of the missing cash, which should be completed by today.

Colin Dixon, the depot manager who was kidnapped by the gang along with his wife Lynn and nine-year-old son Craig, spoke for the first time on Saturday about his family's ''horrific'' ordeal.

The 51-year-old said the ''terror'' he, his 45-year-old wife and son had experienced had amounted to the ''worst night of my life'' and he appealed for the public's help in catching the ''terrible'' gang.

Mr Leppard said Mr Dixon was ''really grateful'' for the messages of support he and his family were receiving and wanted to assure family and friends that they were ''doing well''.