Questions about whether a Secret Service officer wore a prosthetic hand to the inaugural parade to conceal a gun to defend the Trumps have been put to rest.

The theory spread like wildfire online after President Trump's inauguration last Friday.

They were based on several images that seemed to show the officer's right hand frozen in motion, and many believed he wore a prosthetic to conceal a gun he was holding under his coat.

But that has now been disproven thanks to another image and video that shows the officer bending one of his fingers.

The Secret Service agent's appears to be holding his hands in a distinctive pose as he escorts President Trump and the First Lady down Pennsylvania Avenue

There they are again. The agent's hands appear to be in the same position. The photos led to speculation that his right hand was fake, and that he was holding a gun at the ready under his coat

The theory was squashed when video and other photos showed the agent moving his hands.

On Friday there was high security as the presidential entourage of limousines traveled for more than two miles down towards the White House, occasionally getting out to greet the crowd.

The last President to be assassinated was John F Kennedy, in Dallas, in 1963 but Trump has polarized opinion in America on a scale never seen before and the Secret Service is clearly jittery about his security.

In March 1981, only two months after his inauguration, President Ronald Reagan escaped an assassination attempt in Washington.

White House Press Secretary James Brady was left paralyzed by a bullet from would-be assassin John Hinckley, who was released from a psychiatric hospital last year.

As the presidential entourage walked on and waved at supporters the agent (right) kept his hands in the same odd position. His eyes continually surveyed the crowd

Another still from the video footage shows the agent with his hands in the same position as Barron Trump (left) waves to the crowd

This image, taken by an AFP photographer on Friday, shows the agent's hands in a different position, showing they were real after all

In the footage from Friday the bald agent's eyes move constantly, scanning the crowds for signs of a potential assassin, but his arms do not move.

His right hand is splayed out and his left hand is bunched into a fist with one finger touching the other hand's pinky.

This led to Internet speculation he was concealing a weapon under his jacket and had his real hand on the trigger.

There was more specific speculation that he had a Belgian-made FN-P90 sub-machine gun under his coat.

The FN-P90, which holds 50 rounds, is used by the Secret Service's Emergency Response Teams and is small enough to tuck underneath a winter coat.

The first to discuss the agent was an anonymous writer on the gaming blog Frag Hero who wrote on Saturday: 'After yesterday's presidential inauguration, many members of the military and law enforcement community noticed something very unusual about one of Trump's bodyguards.

'The conclusion they reached was that he did indeed have tactical fake arms.'

The agent's arms (right) seem to stay permanently fixed in the same awkward position for the entire procession, a long time for a person to hold their arms in such a way

One blogger suggested the agent probably had his hand on the trigger of his Belgian-made FN-P90 sub-machine gun (pictured)

The blogger says the agent bears 'an uncanny resemblance to Hitman Agent 47', a character played by Rupert Friend in a 2015 action movie based on a video game series.

But the Task and Purpose website said the theory was untrue and pointed to several images taken on Friday of the same agent with his hands in different positions.

Task and Purpose writer Adam Linehan, who spent six years in the US Army, points to one image of the agent getting out of a car: 'The bodyguard, in the background of the image, exits one of the vehicles in the motorcade, and adjusts his tie and coat the way a man - a human man with functional arms - does whenever he's about to appear in public.'

Several bloggers said the Secret Service agent bore a resemblance to Hitman Agent 47 (played by Rupert Friend, pictured) in the 2015 film