Armed police were deployed on fewer operations in Norfolk last year, figures have revealed.

In the year to March, Norfolk Constabulary sent armed officers to 273 incidents, a reduction from the year before, when there were 281.

However armed responses were still significantly higher than before the pandemic. 

In the year to March 2020, the last full year before lockdown took effect, there were 192 operations in the county.

A spokesperson for the Home Office said it was hard to make direct comparisons with rates during the pandemic, but the number of incidents where firearms were discharged "remains very low".

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Norfolk armed officers have not discharged their weapons at all in the last 15 years.

The latest figures also show a decline in the number of Norfolk Constabulary officers trained to use firearms to 117, compared to 123 the previous year.

Simon Chesterman, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for armed policing, said: "A mark of the quality of training that armed officers receive is how infrequently they have to use their weapons."