News Service from Weird House

Vic: Police red-faced as guns fall from car

MELBOURNE, Nov 6 AAP - A red-faced Victoria Police will tighten transport procedures after up to 15 guns fell out of a police car and were strewn over a busy road.

The guns fell out of a four-wheel drive when its back door flew open as they were being taken from Geelong to Melbourne for destruction after being given up in a weapons amnesty.

Geelong Superintendent Peter O'Neill said four-wheel drives would no longerbe used for transporting weapons.

Two police property officers had to rush across a busy street shortly after9am (AEDT) to retrieve the guns strewn for 80 metres along Bacchus Marsh Road in the Geelong suburb of Corio.

"It is unacceptable and alarming, and the incident should not have occurred," Supt O'Neill told AAP.

"We have reviewed our transport procedures, and from now on that vehicle will be replaced by others with more substantial locking devices.

"That would be something like a brawler van with securely padlocked areas separate from the cabin."

The dropped weapons included long-arm guns, air rifles, .22 calibre guns, shotguns and parts of firearms that had been handed in voluntarily by members of the public, Supt O'Neill said.

"They had all been deemed safe and the firing mechanisms had been disabled," he said.

"They did an audit and all the guns have been accounted for, and they continued on their way to the state forensic science lab where they've done a second stocktake, and again all the weapons have been accounted for."

The guns came from police stations at Ocean Grove, Corio and Geelong and were being taken to the Victoria Police Forensics Laboratory in metropolitan Macleod to be destroyed.

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