A police watchdog pulled a presentation on how officers target crimes involving firearms because of fears it would glorify gun culture.

Anna Tapsell, chair of Lambeth’s Community Police Consultative Group (CPCG), cancelled a presentation by specialist firearms officers scheduled for its meeting tonight.

She had concerns the presentation could be "misinterpreted" by the public.

Parts of the talk would have involved guns being passed around the audience, and a “shooting gallery” style simulation where people are put in the shoes of a CO19 officer in a crisis situation.

It was designed as a hard-hitting portrayal of the work of police firearms teams.

But a CPCG spokesman said it was felt the simulation could make gun crime seem "like a game".

The eleventh hour decision to cancel the presentation and discussion has angered some members of the CPCG, as gun crime is a key issue for Lambeth.

Gun crime has risen by 40 per cent in Lambeth this financial year, and last month was at its highest rate for at least two years.

A source said: “Lambeth needs to confront its gun crime problem, not push it to one side and say discussing it glorifies it.”

The CPCG spokesman said: "It was felt the presentation would not be suitable.

"Gun crime is serious, it is not a game. We were concerned parts of the presentation could be perceived in the wrong way by people who did not know what to expect."

He said CO19 would be invited again in the future for a discussion about its work.

The discussion of CO19’s role in Lambeth was also considered important by some following concerns that armed officers could be deployed in routine patrols of the borough’s estates.

Police marksmen also shot dead innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes in Stockwell Tube station in 2005 after mistaking him for terror suspect Hussain Osman.