The Bermuda Police Service has extended its firearms investigations unit following an increased number of complaints about possible gun use on the Island, The Royal Gazette has learned.

Det. Sgt. Calvin Smith, who leads the team, said from late summer onwards last year, the Force began receiving a greater number of calls from residents who claimed they had heard gunshots or seen people with guns.

In December last year, Police dealt with six incidents where reports were made in relation to guns.

One of them involved a number of gunshots-type sounds being heard near to Royal Naval Field in Somerset, which led to a major operation for Police. That is still under investigation.

And so far this year, there have been three reports.

Det. Sgt. Smith said: "During the last few months, we have had a slew of reports coming in. The number of reports has definitely gone up, particularly where information is coming from the public.

"I don't know if the actual number of incidents has increased, or whether people are just reporting them more now. I suspect people are telling us more. Because of things like CrimeStoppers, the information is out there.

"To be honest, I think people are fed up and they want to help us and give information."

At Police headquarters yesterday, there was a collection of firearms that had been confiscated from members of the public.

Among them was a crude, home made wood and metal old-bore rifle that was complete with pump action chamber. It had been seized from a home in Bermuda.

But the majority of the fire arms seized were either pellet or cap guns, or even fake handguns.

However, even cap guns can result in the loss of an eye. Det. Sgt. Smith said often people obtained a gun purely as a status symbol, but he said there were also those who used them to threaten people, or even to assist them in robberies.

He added: "Some fake guns look so real, you would not know it was a toy unless you held it in your hand. We have confiscated toy guns that have very deliberately been altered so any obvious sign of it being a fake is removed. People don't go to that kind of trouble for no reason."

But Bermuda Police's crime manager Det. Chief Insp. Andrew Boyce said whether the guns were fake or real, officers treated every possession with the utmost seriousness.

And he said if a felony was committed with the aid of a gun, the penalty would be the same, regardless of whether the fire arm was real or not.

He said: "We have had a number of reports which we take seriously, and we believe some of them have had a lot of substance.

"We have stepped up our investigations of fire arms offences. We had a team investigating fire arm incidents, but because of the volume of information and reports we were getting in the latter half of last year, we decided to increase our focus and the level of people on the team.

"Bermuda does not have a gun culture and a lot of people are not familiar with fire arms, so even if a fake gun was used on somebody, they would probably take it seriously and believe that it was real.

"I don't consider the issue of guns in Bermuda as a minor problem. Without wanting to cause any panic, it is a problem.

"We have been getting so many calls from the public concerning firearms, and every call we follow up.

"We are not seeing an increase in the number of crimes that are being committed with the use of fire arms.

"The reports we get tend to be where guns have been used to threaten somebody, or seen during street arguments and disputes."

But Det. Chief Insp. Boyce said he wanted to thank everyone who had called Police with reports of gun sightings, and urged people to continue informing the Police when they saw anyone with any kind of weapon.

He added: "Even if someone is carrying a fake gun, or a pellet gun, we want to know about it."