Gun crime in the Thames Valley has escalated dramatically in the last year -- with the second biggest increase in the country.

There were 362 offences in the year to April 2003 -- 95 more than during 2001-2002.

Nationally only Leicestershire, where there was 100 more firearms offences in 2002-03 than the previous year, showed a bigger increase.

But police insist Oxford itself does not have a serious gun problem.

The most recent incident in the city involving guns was last Monday. A 56-year-old shop worker at Delteys supermarket, in Blackbird Leys Road, had a gun held to her head by a masked robber.

The woman was too upset to talk about the incident and has not yet returned to work.

Paul Whitman, 44, who runs the shop, said: "The system favours the criminal and not the police or the victims.

"I think at the moment the criminals are taking advantage of the police knowing there's only so much they can do."

He claimed police often knew who the criminals were but had insufficient powers to make arrests without a cast-iron case.

The latest figures show that Thames Valley had the highest number of gun crimes in the South East outside London, with 17 offences per 100,000 people. That compares with nine per 100,000 people in Sussex and just three in Surrey. Acting Supt Paul Emmings, of Oxford police, said the figures amounted to about one offence per day across Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.

He said Oxford did not have a gun crime problem. However, any alleged offence would be scrupulously investigated.

Supt George Wilson, of Thames Valley's tactical support unit, said: "We are greatly concerned about the substantial rise last year.

"The figures must be placed in context though. Firearms offences account for only 0.2 per cent of overall crime in the force area, and many offences do not involve injury to the person."

Offences were not always shootings or armed robberies. They could include incidents where the drawing of a firearm was threatened but no gun seen, or where guns were used to strike people or damage property.

Possessing an illegal firearm is now punishable with a mandatory five-year prison sentence. Sightings of replica guns, often indistinguishable from the real thing, can result in a full armed response from police.

Anyone carrying an imitation gun in public faces six months in jail or a £5,000 fine.