VISITORS to Malvern can visit a special statue made from deactivated and seized firearms when it comes to the town.

The anti-violence bee has been built out of guns by a company up in Manchester, and is making its way around the country throughout late 2022 and early 2023.

The bee will arrive in Priory Park in the town at 9.30am on November 13.

It will spend the morning there before leaving at around 12.30pm.

This is part of the West Mercia leg of its tour.

A team from the British Ironwork Centre created the bee for Greater Manchester Police as part of the police force's campaign against gun violence.

In July 2020, a 7.5 tonne lorry arrived at the ironworks to deliver thousands of weapons – including knives and guns – which were collected from the streets of Manchester.

All weapons were collected as part of the GMP’s ‘Forever Amnesty’.

The knife and gun banks used for the amnesty were designed and created here at the Centre and have been utilised as a continual programme to encourage and support the public to surrender their dangerous weapons in order to clear the streets of violent and aggressive behaviour.

Clive Knowles, chairman of the British Ironwork Centre, said: "I just wanted to say, from my own perspective, that I really enjoyed organising the Bee tour around GMP and found the response to be incredibly positive.

"The level of engagement it invoked from school children was incredible. So thank you very much."

The bee was created by the same team as the Knife Angel, which attracted thousands of visitors when it came to Cathedral Square in Worcester earlier this year.

A West Mercia Police knife amnesty collected around 300 knives while the giant sculpture was in place.

The knife angel was made from approximately 100,000 knives by Shropshire-based craftsman Alfie Bradley.