Weapons haul in crackdown

In the opening week of the Maximum Impact on Crime operation officers in Sheffield seized two guns, nine knives and four other offensive weapons. Officers also recovered a gas-powered handgun as part of Operation Hobb, in which five drugs warrants were also issued, resulting in four arrests and the seizure of a large amount of class A drugs.

In the second week in Doncaster police recovered 10 knives, while in Rotherham a man was arrested for possession of firearms - including two high-powered air-weapons.

Officers today urged South Yorkshire residents not to be “a friend to people who own such weapons”, in the wake of the shooting of an 11-year-old boy in the Croxteth area of Liverpool. Rhys Jones was shot in the neck in the car park of a pub. Witnesses say a teenager on a BMX bike fired three shots.

Temporary assistant chief constable Paul Broadbent welcomed the weapon seizures.

He said: “This shows what can be achieved if the public get behind the police and inform them of the persons who have firearms, knives and other weapons in the possession.”