Vulnerable kids with no family support or who have dropped out of education are being targeted by older criminals and forced into gang warfare.

Police say the youngsters are often lonely with no prospects in life and see the gangs as a way to get respect.

Firearms officers took a frightening array of real and fake guns to a Town Hall meeting to show councillors the seriousness of the problem on Sheffield's streets.

Inspector Paul McCurry said: "The key question is why young people join a gang.

"One reason is for identity because they may never have had a father and the gang provides them with a stable relationship they have never had in their lives.

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"People are also bullied into joining gangs and that starts in the school playground.

"We talk about our future and what we have planned in a few months but most of the young people in gangs are living in fear of getting through today.

"Many young people are reluctant gang members. They may have dropped out of education and nobody is pushing them at home and it becomes acceptable to join a gang because they get 'respect' and have a purpose in life.

"It's sad as some of these gang members are bright and intelligent. They may have a hard image but they are victims and we need to do something to help them."

A meeting of the full council heard that three years ago police went into schools to warn of the dangers of airguns, but now they talk to pupils about real guns and knives.

Insp McCurry said "fragmented communities" were causing the problem and everyone needed to work together to tackle it.

"Gangs are nothing new but in the early 2000s we started to see recognisable gangs develop around the country where young people wanted to defend their territory.

"In the last year we have seen a lot of gangs based on postcodes develop.

"We are not talking about school playgrounds or teenagers hanging around street corners but gangs of young people coming together for criminal purposes.

"There are a lot of warning signs to identify these young people and there are a lot of positive things we can do to give them meaning, a purpose in life and focus on something positive rather than just picking up a gun or a knife."

Insp McCurry urged people to band together to tackle the problem and said: "Police can't do this on our own and we rely on other people to assist us and do their part."

Council Leader Paul Scriven said the presentation had shocked councillors. He said: "The true human effects of the devastation that knife and gun crime can cause was really brought home to councillors.

"It is not just the police's job to deal with this issue, the fact they have to deal with it at all means we have all failed as a society.

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