A TOTAL of 14 firearms were handed in to Redditch Police Station during a two week anti-gun initiative.

Officers are thanking members of the public their support following the firearms surrender campaign which took place from Saturday, July 20, to Sunday, August 4.

The region-wide campaign, which gave people with firearms living in the area the opportunity to hand them in to their local police station, saw 103 firearms surrendered in total, as well as 41 rounds of ammunition.

The surrendered weapons have been made safe and most of them will be cut up and melted down. Exceptionally rare weapons, or those with high historical value, may be donated to a museum.

At Kidderminster Police Station, 26 firearms were handed in, and the Worcester station saw 11 surrendered.

Following the surrender, Superintendent Mel Crowther said: "We have been really pleased with 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.

"Although we don't have a major gun crime problem within the region, 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 so thank you to everyone who took part."

West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion said: "As is always the case, these surrenders have again proven their worth with more than 100 firearms removed from circulation. I am grateful to our communities who have taken the positive step to surrender these items and help make us all even safer".