CCTV cameras that find and track people carrying concealed guns could be on the streets in three years, say researchers at Kingston University.

The system is being hailed as a way to reduce increasing levels of gun crime by identifying suspects and alerting police, while following them using the current network of cameras.

It will be able to improve its accuracy by learning from its mistakes and is being developed by academics at Kingston and Loughborough Universities, working with academics from Brighton, Liverpool and Sunderland.

The research team will look at genuine footage of gun-carrying criminals to look for patterns in their behaviour and actions.

Dr Dimitrios Makris, computing lecturer at Kingston University, who is part of the development team, said: "The team at Loughborough will identify these patterns and involuntary activity exhibited by people carrying concealed weapons.

"This will be passed to us at Kingston, where we will use it to develop the identification software.

"When the system is up and running, it will be able to teach itself by identifying other similarities between people carrying guns and learning from errors."

The project, which will last for three years, is being funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, which invests in scientific discovery and innovation.

Gun crime increased by more than 20 per cent in Kingston in the year between February 2005 and 2006, with 40 gun-enabled crimes, compared to 33 in the previous 12 months.