London: The head of Manchester's police force says he is proud his officers do not all carry guns, after being asked if British police officers should be armed like their counterparts in Australia to deal with the elevated terror threat.

The comments came during an exchange with an Australian caller - "Steve from Sydney" - who phoned into BBC Manchester's radio morning program to question Chief Constable Ian Hopkins. The police chief has been the face of the investigation into the suicide bombing at Manchester Arena last week, in which 22 people were killed and scores more were injured while attending an Ariana Grande concert.

Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police Ian Hopkins meets with Prime Minister Theresa May following the attack. Credit:Getty Images

Chief Constable Hopkins spent one hour on Tuesday morning, British time, taking questions from the public. Half-way into the program he received a question on the hotly-debated question as to whether English police officers should all be allowed to carry guns.

"Should the UK police officers maybe consider [allowing] police officer to carry hand guns like we do here," Steve asked, citing the case of PC Keith Palmer who was stabbed to death by terrorist Khalid Massood outside Westminster in March. British media reported that Masood was shot dead by an armed officer attached to a Government minister.