FROM Dirty Harry and Starsky and Hutch to characters in The Sweeney and The Bill, the gun-toting cop has become commonplace on our movie and TV screens.

Thankfully, armed police are still a relatively uncommon site on British streets, but the police still need to be trained how to react in real life-and-death situations involving weapons.

With this in mind, Cleveland and Durham constabularies have joined forces to create the most advanced firearms and tactical training facility in Europe.

The £6.8m purpose-built complex at Urlay Nook, near Stockton, will cost a total of £32m over 25 years. It was designed, built and will be managed by Scottish developers Barr Holdings under a government private finance initiative.

The government is paying 70pc of the costs, with the two forces paying 15pc each.

The first of its kind in Britain, it features a variety of shooting ranges and operational areas.

Officers can storm a hostage building by abseiling from a 70ft tower, practice a helicopter take-off and landing, fire at targets in 30m and 100m ranges with live rounds and act out computer controlled situations to negotiate and, if necessary, shoot simulated assailants.

The tactical training school will initially provide training for up to 200 officers from Cleveland and Durham every year. But other police authorities, from throughout Britain and abroad, have already shown interest in the centre and it is expected to be used by outside forces in the future.

The man in charge of the centre is Insp Steve McWilliams. He said: "We are trail blazers and this is a state-of-the-art model for the world.

"Our officers are already trained to a high standard, but a centre with these capabilities can raise levels of performance to even higher standard."

Facilities are so highly advanced that in one specialist simulation room officers who fail to react quickly enough to a moving scenario played out on a wall-sized screen in front of them find themselves shot at.

It was in this room, following a briefing and demonstration by highly skilled and trained firearms officers, that I volunteered to have a go at dealing with one of the on-screen situations; with the promise that no-one would actually shoot me if I got it wrong.

As I had never held a real pistol in my life, the training officer in charge gave me a few quick tips before the lights went out and the action began.

Forget arcade games and paintballing, this is the real thing.

Feeling nervous, I pointed the gun shakily at the first villain who appeared on the screen and barked commands, parrot fashion, for him to stand still, put down his gun and put his hands in the air.

The officer controlling the scenario from his computer made sure he took no notice, of course, and the target made off into a sideroom.

By now I was really in there, and any self-consciousness quickly disappeared as I took cover behind one of the room's boxes. The adrenalin started pumping and I became aware that my voice was getting louder as I continued to shout at the man in the room to come out with his hands up.

Then he appeared around the corner of the wall with what I assumed to be a gun pointed towards me. I blasted off two rounds and he fell to the ground; but it was not over yet. A second armed man appeared at another door and it was his turn to get it.

Four shots later, with the man down, I confidently stood up and put the gun down, only for him to start shooting again from his prone position. One dead cop!

The training officer then proceeded to debrief me about the incident, asking me how many shots I'd fired, why, what the men were dressed like; just as officers undergoing training have to do. The point is you can't just go in there and blast away in a real-life situation; everything has to be done in a cool, calm and measured way and actually firing your weapon is a last resort.

A replay of the scenario showed my first shot only damaged the rather nasty wallpaper, but the next hit its intended target.

The second villain, however, was taken out clinically with one shot to the leg, one to the waist and a third to the head, followed by a fourth into the furniture just for good measure.

I have to admit to a slightly embarrassing feeling of pleasure and achievement mixed with relief.

In the skills house, which features a normal two-storey building with the aforementioned 70ft tower attached, sound effects include a barking dog, crying baby and ringing telephone to make the situation seem as real as possible.

Officers dressed in black, armed to the teeth and wearing ventilator masks stormed the building using a "nine-bang grenade", a sort of firecracker designed to disorientate the hostage takers.

All the officers' movements and actions are recorded and played back to show them what they did and, importantly, where they may have gone wrong.

The complex has been operating since April, but was officially opened by the chief constables of Durham and Cleveland on Thursday of last week.

Mr George Hedges, chief constable of Durham, said: "I'm decimated if police officers in this country have to carry firearms; it's the last thing we want to do.

"It's more important to train them when not to shoot and a lot of what we do here is tactical training.

"But if we are asking them to go into difficult and dangerous positions we have got to make sure we give them the best possible training.

"If we never have to shoot a gun, or when we do we get it right, then this place has been successful."