Police have warned that the supply of guns to criminals in the UK has increased, adding to fears that weapons may be sold on to terrorists wanting to stage a Paris-style attack in Britain. The Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, announced a crackdown after the increase in firearms supply was coupled with a spike in shooting incidents in the last three months in London.

Since a marauding group of armed terrorists attacked Paris in November, killing 130 people, the focus on taking guns off Britain’s streets has intensified. As part of the crackdown, there will be more visible armed patrols visible in the capital. Officers with guns will support colleagues stopping people suspected of possessing firearms, Hogan-Howe said.

The ability of terrorists in Britain to get firearms from criminal networks is not theoretical. Last month, two Isis-inspired jihadists were jailed for planning a terrorist gun attack in London. They sourced their firearm from a criminal source who had access to up to five guns.



Hogan-Howe said: “As we have seen in Europe, particularly looking at France and Belgium, if we allow the easy access or allow any liberal approach to the possession of firearms for criminals, then it allows the possibility that terrorists get hold of them. The terrorists generally are going to go for a criminal source to supply them. There’s no way we want that to happen in the UK.”



He added: “The French and the Belgians accept that in the last 10 years criminals have got more access to weapons, particularly automatic weapons, who have then been the source for the terrorists. If your general supply is higher, the chances of a terrorist getting hold of them are also higher.”

Counterterrorism investigators believe any attempt to mount a Paris-style attack in Britain would probably see guns being sourced from criminals.

Hogan-Howe said there were more illegal guns on the streets and said the rise in shootings in the last three months was significant: “The fact that we’re seeing it across the country in the big cities probably indicates that we’re talking about more supply.” Nationally, there has been an increase of around 19% in firearms discharges since 2013-14, with London also experiencing roughly that level of increase.

Under the new initiative, the Met said, armed patrols will focus on gun crime hotspots across the capital, all of which have pockets of poverty where police and community relations have been strained. They are the boroughs of Newham, Hackney, Haringey, Brent, Lambeth and Southwark.

Scotland Yard said the new initiative, Operation Viper, will see armed officers accompanying officers on traffic stops as part of a suite of “suppression” measures. Hogan-Howe said more stop and search may also be used, as may so called “section 60” powers allowing stops without an officer needing reasonable suspicion. He said any such tactics would be used only if justified by intelligence.

Police say criminals want access to the guns without keeping them at an address that could be linked to them. In one case three Skorpion automatic weapons were found in south London by workmen. They had been concealed in a bag buried in the ground.

In another case, a loaded MAC-10 machine pistol, known as the “spray and pray” weapon, was found in the home of a mother and her children. She had been looking after it for someone else and was jailed for five years.

In February, David Thompson, the chief constable of the West Midlands, and the police’s national lead on guns, said that firearms were coming in from both the US and Europe, with Germany causing special concern as well as the Balkan countries.

In a Guardian interview, he said criminals were trying a range of tactics to avoid detection. “We have to watch a trend of disassembling the weapons and sending them in component parts.” He also revealed that a rise in parcels being sent to Britain due to the popularity of online shopping was helping criminals to camouflage the smuggling of firearms into the country.

The Met said that weapons had been fired in London 122 times so far this year, with two people killed and 62 injured. In 2015 there were 226 discharges of firearms, with 10 people killed and 93 injured. Around half of suspects and victims in shooting incidents are linked to gangs, with conflicts in the drugs trade a common factor.

Hogan-Howe stressed that gun crime was still at a lower level than five years ago, and others in law enforcement stress that guns are still a rare commodity on Britain’s streets. He said: “Firearm use is thankfully still rare in London and rarely affects those not involved in crime – but I am very concerned about the recent increase, and we are determined to stop it.”

Police will offer rewards of up to £2,000 to people – most likely fellow criminals – who inform on those with guns.







