One of Cornwall's top police has contradicted claims by the county's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) that letting the public arm themselves could help during a terror attack.

Speaking on BBC Radio Cornwall yesterday, the Conservative PCC for Devon and Cornwall, Alison Hernandez, gave a surprise response to a former registered firearms dealer who asked what the consequences would be if she used guns during a terror attack in her hometown of Bude.

Ms Hernandez suggested that the idea be put officially to Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer, before saying: "This might be some of our solution to our issues."

When presenter Laurence Reed asked if she was advocating "vigilantism," she said: "Let's officially have a look at that and see what would be the implications of that. Let's unpick it a little bit."

She added: "Sara's a registered firearms dealer so I'm assuming you own a gun shop or something. We work with businesses to keep our community safe."

When, prompted by Mr Reed, the caller said she would be happy taking on a terrorist, Ms Hernandez laughingly said: "She's not messing about, I wouldn't go down to Bude."

She said: "The reality is, Laurence, if your community is coming under attack, I think people would do all sorts of thing to try and save their community, without even thinking."

And she added that the chief constable "wouldn't want to entertain" the idea of the public arming themselves, "but these are times that are challenging and I would like to have an official response on that."

Deputy Chief Constable Paul Netherton was quick to reject the idea, saying the public should "under no circumstances" arm themselves.

He said: “Quite obviously a marauding terrorist is the most challenging of circumstances, the police response requires significant professionalism and training as well as firearms capability.

“During these incidents, highly trained police firearms officers and special forces will be deployed to protect our communities.

“We would only use the normal military in response to a national security threat level and they would be deployed to free up police resources from their security duties.

“Under no circumstances would we want members of the public to arm themselves with firearms, not least because officers responding would not know who the offenders were, and quite obviously they would not have the time to ask.

“Our message to the public is a simple one: to run, to hide and to tell.

“Having said that, I accept that British policing will require an uplift in resources in response to the unprecedented threats we are currently facing.

“This includes additional operationally firearms capability as well as an investment in our local policing which does so much to identify and prevent people from committing terrorist acts.

“In light of the recent terrorist attacks and the threats that the UK are facing, we have already reviewed our resources and are working with other agencies to ensure that we have the capability to meet these threats.”

In a statement on Tuesday morning, Ms Hernandez said her comments had been misinterpreted.

She said: "To be clear, I am not advocating the use of firearms or other weapons by members of the public in the event of a terrorist incident.  As I have said many times previously the police instruction to ‘run, hide and tell’ is the appropriate action and that should be followed. 

"The caller raised a question about what the large number of people who hold legitimate firearms licenses could do in the event of an attack on their community."