The rate of gun crime in West Yorkshire remains double that of the average of the rest of the country outside London, despite a fall in the number of offences by more than ten per cent last year, Home Office figures have revealed.

West Yorkshire experienced a rate of 15 firearms incidents per 100,000 residents, which compares starkly with the national average outside of the capital of seven per 100,000 residents.

London itself remains a hotbed for gun crime, swelling the national average to 18 incidents per 100,000 residents when its figures are taken into account.

The good news for West Yorkshire came with a ten per cent drop in the number of offences from 355 in 2005/6 to 319 in 2006/07, reflecting a drop across the country of 12 per cent from 7,204 to 6,319.

Over the same period, killings rose from 35 to 36 across the country. That was equivalent to 16.7 offences per million of the population. Nationally, reports of homicide rose from 725 to 734, an average of 13.7 per million people.

West Yorkshire Police Federation chairman Tom McGhie said: "We would like to see no incidents, but we understand that would be almost impossible. We have had bitter experience, with two of our officers being killed.

"Four officers were awarded the Queen's accommodation for bravery when they were fired at when criminals were using weapons, but thankfully they were not seriously injured.

"Firearms are an ever-present danger and the illegal use of them is still a big threat. I hope this downward trend will continue and we see less incidents of them being used."

PC Sharon Beshenivsky was shot dead when she was called to a burglary in November, 2005, and PC Ian Broadhurst was shot dead by in December, 2003.

Assistant Chief Constable David Crompton said: "Firearms can strike fear into communities, however West Yorkshire does not have a major firearms problem in comparison to similarly sized areas.

"It is good news that the number of firearms offences has dropped but one incident on our streets is one too many.

"Much of the work we do to combat gun crime takes places behind the scenes and despite it often remaining unseen by the public they can be reassured we treat it as a very high priority."

Separate figures released yesterday also show a fall in police officers in the county. In September last year there were 5,625 officers, compared with 5,651 in March, 2007, and 5,645 in September, 2006. This figures excludes officers who are on career breaks or who are on paternity or paternity leave.

Nationally the same figures, excluding the officers on leave, show 142,229 officers in September, 2007 compared with 142,526 in September the previous year.

In West Yorkshire the number of PCSOs increased dramatically from 505 in September, 2006, to 719 in September last year. Nationally, numbers almost doubled from 8,517 to 15,391 in the same time period.