Firearm officers had 5,000 call-outs

MET firearms officers were called out nearly 5,000 times last year - a new high, according to Home Office figures out today.

The statistics show that armed officers were deployed on 4,948 occasions last year compared with 3,878 times for the preceding 12 months and 4,711 a year before that.

However, despite the high number of call-outs, armed police across the entire country fired their weapons only seven times although there was no indication how many were in London.

The figures coincide with another Home Office document today which says convicted criminals could be barred from buying deactivated guns - increasingly used in crime - and might only be obtainable from registered dealers.