Concerns have been raised over police officers patrolling the streets of Gloucester with guns.

Armed police attended 51 incidents in the county over the past six months but officers from the Armed Response Unit carry handguns at all times, even when they are dealing with non-emergency or routine situations.

The sight of policemen openly carrying guns has sparked fears among some city residents.

Reports have come in of armed police officers in Tesco car park off St Oswald's Road and during a recent rugby match at Kingsholm.

Director of Gloucester Emergency Accommodation Resource, in Southgate Street, Brian Jones, which offers help to the homeless, said: "I was concerned to see two police officers with handguns in full view walking across Tesco's car park recently.

"There was clearly no emergency and they were in no hurry.

"I do not expect to see armed police walking around in this country – I am very concerned."

Another concerned resident said they were surprised to see armed police at a recent rugby game.

"There were two policemen carrying sidearms during the Gloucester versus Ospreys rugby match at Kingsholm recently," he said.

"I have no idea why they were there or how long they were staying but they had no sense of urgency – they were just standing there watching the game."

A mother, who wished to remain anonymous, also called The Citizen to complain.

She said: "I was walking through the city centre with my 11-year-old daughter and two policemen wearing those blue boiler-suits were coming towards us.

"My daughter said 'look at those policemen, they've got guns'.

"It was not a pleasant sight as I was always proud of the fact that our police didn't carry guns."

Gloucestershire Constabulary spokeswoman Kate Nelmes said: "Our policy, which has been in place since November 2007 and is in line with that of most other police forces is that Armed Response officers carry their sidearms at all times as part of their standard equipment.

"As dealing with firearms incidents is a relatively small part of their daily business they will be seen dealing with routine police incidents or on general patrol, with sidearms.

"So far this operational year – April until September – our firearms officers have dealt with seven incidents at tier one level and 44 incidents at tier two level.

"This compares with figures for a similar period last year, when there was one incident at tier one level and 67 incidents at tier two level.

"Tier one is when they are sent to a scene in readiness and tier two is when they are actually required to arm themselves and actively become involved in dealing with an incident."