The airguns can be sold to anyone over 17 because they are not classified as firearms.The Met believes most gun incidents now involve converted weapons.The study says that the number of firearms incidents in London increased by about 700 to 5,410 in 2002. Ms Carr, 26, denies two counts of assisting an offender and one of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.. The boom in executive-style war games, such as paintballing, is providing criminals with a ready supply of guns that are being converted into lethal weapons, a confidential Scotland Yard report says. Jury members will be accommodated for one night at an undisclosed location. The trial will resume at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, when the first prosecution witnesses are expected to be called.Mr Huntley, 29, denies two charges of murder but has admitted a charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Children in Soham have been given at least one day off school and teachers have asked parents to avoid the village college area and other places that jurors are expected to visit.The sites are to be considered precincts of the court, which will be in session throughout the visit. The jurors will be accompanied by Mr Justice Moses, the trial judge, who said the visit was designed to help jurors decide "important features about the location".Although security guards have been deployed since before the start of the trial to keep so-called "tourists" away from Soham, the visit is expected to create a considerable upheaval to village life.Roads to the village and the proposed sites will be cordoned off in an attempt to minimise disruption to the proceedings.

The village of Soham will be shut in effect today as part of the murder trial into the deaths of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells. On the sixth day of the trial, members of the jury will visit a number of significant locations linked to the deaths of the two schoolgirls.The detached house shared by Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr in the grounds of Soham Village College will be seen by jurors during the two-day visit.They will also visit the ditch where the bodies of the two girls were found in a remote wooded area 12 days after their disappearance on 4 August last year. "All the sociological evidence is that children fare better when raised in a traditional home by a man and a woman who have committed themselves to a life-long marriage," he said.. A bishop who called on homosexuals to seek medical help to change their sexuality is to be interviewed by police. "We are working two-and-a-half times harder than we did at the height of the Irish terrorism campaign."There's a massive amount of activity, a massive amount of work taking place."For us in the security services, what we have to do is to see an attack as inevitable."That means to say we are doing everything we can to prevent it, but just as important is that if it does take place, we have got everything in place to ensure that we can do everything for the people of London and the people of this country.".

If we have got a means of identifying people with reasonable certainty - which this is - then that is what we should be doing."Sir John, who has overall responsibility for the police's anti-terrorist activities, said that the level of response to the threat was far higher now than it had been during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.The Met was facing an "unprecedented" challenge over the next few weeks, working to ensure security during President George Bush's state visit to Britain, which begins on 19 November."We are on the highest alert that we have ever been at," Sir John said. "The sooner it is brought in for us - being somewhat selfish in terms of public safety - the better. It is something I was ambivalent about five years ago, but am very much in favour of now."It is absolutely essential in the dangerous world we live in, that we have proper means of identification. Britain's top police officer gave his support yesterday to the introduction of compulsory identity cards, describing them as an "absolutely essential" tool in the war against terrorism. Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said Britain was at its highest level of alert in its peacetime history because of the threat of terrorism. The latest review, after the publication last month of the former butler Paul Burrell's memoirs, reportedly resulted in the insertion of a clause imposing a £250,000 penalty on employees who "tell all" in a book Criticspoint to inconsistencies in enforcing the agreements. Despite quoting from letters written by the Duke of Edinburgh to Diana in his book, Buckingham Palace has taken no action for breach of copyright.Three years ago the Palace declined to act against Patrick Jephson, Diana's former private secretary, for his book, Shadows of a Princess, which portrayed the Princess as a lonely rebel.