THE soaring number of incidents requiring police officers to carry guns across the North-East and North Yorkshire was revealed yesterday.

Home Office figures show that the number of armed operations authorised by Cleveland Police rose by 166.5 per cent last year, from 170 to 453.

In 2001, firearms were issued only 28 times, which is an increase of more than 1,500 per cent in three years.

Durham Police recorded an 88 per cent rise in 2003/4, from 83 to 156, while the North Yorkshire force authorised 147 armed operations, compared to 100 a year earlier - a rise of 47 per cent.

All those increases were far greater than the national rise of 12.3 per cent, from 14,827 to 16,657. Police fired conventional guns only eight times, in four incidents.

However, rubber bullets were fired on 15 occasions and stun guns - regarded as a "less lethal alternative" - were used a further 13 times.

Superintendent Martin Campbell, head of operations at Cleveland Police, said they expected to see an increase following the introduction of baton guns, which fire plastic rounds and are seen as a non-lethal option.

He said that a policy decision was taken that allowed trained officers carrying baton guns to be immediately dispatched to incidents involving "edged weapons", such as swords and knives.

A spokesman for Durham Police said that actual incidents in which guns are fired were rare.

Meanwhile, the use of armed response vehicles is also on the rise - up by 36.5 per cent in Cleveland last year, from 63 occasions to 86.

Durham (up 45.5 per cent, from 66 to 96) and North Yorkshire (up 64.2 per cent, from 67 to 110) both recorded big increases as well.

Northumbria Police bucked the trend, with a fall both in the number of armed operations (down 10.6 per cent, from 1,275 to 1,140) and the use of armed response vehicles (down 11.7 per cent, from 1,204 to 1,063).

Home Office ministers did not comment on the figures, which were released in a written statement to MPs.

They came a day after the latest crime statistics showed that gun crime rose by five per cent in the third quarter of last year and violent crime by six per cent.