Huge rise in South Yorkshire gun incidents

Firearms officers were authorised for 749 incidents in South Yorkshire in 2005/6 - compared with 155 incidents in 1996/97.

The figures, published by Home Office minister Tony McNulty, showed armed response officers were deployed more frequently in South Yorkshire than in several other similar-sized or bigger forces.

Police firearms were authorised on only 394 occasions in Nottinghamshire during the same period, for only 478 incidents in Greater Manchester, and for 669 in Merseyside.

Further statistics obtained by The Star under the Freedom of Information Act show 90 people were caught with a firearm in the county during 2005-6. compared with 10 in 1995-6.

During the same period, incidents where people were injured by a firearm increased from 46 to 114 each year, and total crimes involving the most dangerous weapons - handguns, shotguns and rifles - excluding immitation weapons, rose from 141 to 225.

Shockingly, 48 per cent of current armed police call-outs are to incidents involving under 15s.

About 60 per cent of firearms offences in South Yorkshire happen in Sheffield.

Children as young as 12 or 13 are being lured into the seedy underworld operating in parts of the city - and some begin carrying firearms to protect themselves from attacks by rivals.

A 16-year-old boy interviewed by The Star earlier this year told how he used to make hundreds of pounds a week flogging heroin, and armed himself in his early teens after being beaten up, stabbed and having his face slashed.

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Liberal Democrats said the figures showed gun crime is now a "daily concern for millions of people".

The party's Home Affairs spokesman, Jeremy Browne, said: "The underlying problem is the huge growth in the availability of guns.

" We need proper enforcement of anti-gun laws and enhanced efforts to intercept smuggled firearms."

But South Yorkshire Police stressed the increase in armed deployments was not because of gun crime spiralling out of control.

Assistant Chief Constable Andy Holt said he was "anxious to put the figures into context".

He said because of the "increased capability" of armed officers due to extra training and better tactical awareness, they now respond to incidents which they did not years ago.

But he added that youngsters using imitation and BB guns on the streets had led to a rise in the number of calls to police, where firearms officers have to be deployed as a matter of course.

Despite the high number of firearms incidents, Jonathan's killing is only the fifth murder involving guns in South Yorkshire since 2000.

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