Police in rural Victoria will be armed with semi-automatic guns because of a growing concern about terrorism in country towns.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton and Police Minister Lisa Neville announced on Thursday that $25 million from the state budget would be allocated to arm and train 600 police officers to use long arm semi-automatic firearms.

Mr Ashton speaks to officers holding long arm firearms. These are not the exact weapons Victoria Police will use. This is still be decided. Credit:Scott McNaughton

Police said hundreds of guns would be provided to officers via the scheme but it would not amount to one weapon per trained officer.

The weapons and training will be for operational response unit officers in the CBD and selected officers in some country towns. Mr Ashton said the weapons would not be carried by officers on patrol and would only be used in high-risk situations such as terror attacks or siege incidents.