75 weapons handed in to Bexhill police

With the month-long amnesty due to come to an end yesterday, staff at Bexhill have been totalling-up their tally.

The list ranges from a deadly pump-action shotgun to a tiny "palm pistol" a weapon so small that it can be concealed in the hand but a fully-operative .22 revolver.

The palm pistol is a fairly rare item so Bexhill police station inquiry assistant Colin Baldwin was intrigued to accept the surrender of a second such weapon in the final days of the amnesty. The deadly handbag weapon is so tiny it is dwarfed by a mobile phone.

In a last-minute flurry of activity before Wednesday's end to the amnesty, three pistols were surrendered at Bexhill police station within 10 minutes. They were closely followed by an airgun and a .410 shotgun.

The weapons surrendered at Bexhill have helped swell the countywide tally to more than 1,000 and the national total to 20,000.