POLICE are warning that people who brandish imitation guns risk being shot by armed officers.

The warning from Durham Police assistant chief constable Ron Hogg follows two incidents involving ball bearing-firing handguns in different parts of the county.

The first, last Saturday, involved youths in a car that was pursued and stopped at gun-point after someone saw a youngster holding a gun while the vehicle was in Barnard Castle.

On Sunday, in Broompark, near Durham City, armed officers helped search and find two 14-year-olds who confronted a woman in her fifties by twirling a handgun.

Mr Hogg said: "Where a gun has clearly been seen we must act accordingly.

"That inevitably means armed officers respond and, while they are trained to the very highest of levels, they have no sixth sense to help distinguish whether a gun is real or not.

"Anyone who brandishes a weapon and believes they are safe because it is not real is a fool."

In the Broompark incident, the teenagers were taken to Durham City's police station where, in the presence of their parents, were warned about their conduct.