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A police armed response unit stopped and searched a train at Eaglescliffe on Tuesday, believing there might be firearms on board.

In fact a group of boys were carrying two ball bearing guns, designed to look as much like real handguns as possible.

The police questioned four boys, and the guns - commercially available toys - were destroyed.

91热爆 Radio Cleveland's Andrea Hopper got hold of the remains of the guns.

Dave Bew, of Cleveland Police's firearms department explains:

"There are parts here of what we would class as BB guns, or soft air guns.

"They aren't highly-powered, and that's why they can sell them in the way they do.

"These guns are quite light, lose their energy quite soon, but then again, when kids are playing with these guns, they're usually close to one another.

"If it hit soft tissue, an eye for instance, it could cause some quite serious damage at close range.

"They're designed to imitate a self-loading pistol, and these guns are not poor imitations, they're absolutely authentically accurate.

"Unless you had the actual toy gun in your hand, I think it would be impossible to see [the difference].

"They would see the general shape of the gun, they would assume it to be a live gun until they could physically hold it and prove that it wasn't.

"When you are faced with looking at one of these you have a split-second to make that decision, whether it's live or otherwise."