WEST Mercia and Warwickshire Police's firearm surrender campaign has been hailed a success, as more than 400 weapons are handed in.

During the two-week campaign, which ended on Sunday, 299 people handed in a total of 436 weapons to stations across the regions.

Of that figure, 328 were handed in to stations in the West Mercia policing area.

44 guns from Kidderminster, 52 from Redditch and 46 from Worcester were handed in to the police.

All of the weapons have been made safe, and most of them will be melted down- weapons with high historical value may be handed into museums.

Superintendent Charles Hill said: “We have been overwhelmed by the public response to this campaign and we’d like to thank every person who has taken this opportunity to surrender a firearm for us to dispose of safely. It is great to see that there are so many people as committed as we are to making our region even safer and protecting people from harm.

“We’re fortunate not to have a major gun crime problem in the region but we do have a large number of legally owned firearms and other older firearms in people’s possession and unfortunately these sometimes fall into the wrong hands and end up being used in crime. Every single one of these weapons handed in is one less opportunity for this to happen.

“The majority of firearms handed in were older items that are or have been legally owned but the owner no longer needs them and wants to see them safely disposed of. A lot of the weapons were discovered in houses, often by relatives of people who have passed away, and handed in to us.”

If anyone has concerns regarding firearms in the community they live, call 101.