"ASTOUNDING." That's the verdict of one of Hampshire's top policemen on last month's firearms amnesty which saw more than 1,000 guns handed into police stations across the county.

"To get one weapon handed in would have been a success. To get over 1,000 is astounding," said Assistant Chief Commissioner Colin Smith.

More than 400 knives and 25,000 rounds of ammunition including a single collection of 8,000 bullets were also collected across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

Asst Chief Commissioner Smith hailed the latest amnesty a huge success exceeding all expectations.

More weapons were handed in last month than a similar amnesty in 1996 after the Dunblane tragedy.

"After Dublane, public emotion was involved. This amnesty did not follow a tragedy, it's more a case of people saying 'we do not want weapons'."

Asst Chief Commissioner Smith added that there was a perception among some young people that to have weapons gave them respect.

"It's wrong that people should think that they need weapons to have a presence."

Firearms collected ranged from toy cap guns to sub-machine guns. One of the more unusual firearms was a German Luger 9mm semi-automatic pistol, used during the Second World War.

Around 150 replicas and blank firearming pistols were handed in too.

Asst Chief Commissioner Smith said the main benefit of the amnesty was to take the firearms and weapons off the streets.

"It's clearly not criminals handing in these weapons, but what we have done is taken 1,000 weapons out of circulation."

Hampshire Police firearms licensing officer Mark Groothuis said a large proportion of the guns were handed in at rural stations such as Lyndhurst.

There was a rush of firearms on the last day of the amnesty, yesterday because of all the publicity surrounding the event.

Once the final total is known all the weapons will be chopped up and destroyed.