A toy gun sparked a police search after three teenage boys were spotted pointing it at passing cars.

A woman driver dialled 999 after she became concerned about the actions of the teenagers, who were travelling in a car in front of her as she drove along Halfway Road at 5pm on Thursday.

She told police they had been pointing what looked like a silver handgun at passing traffic.

Specialist officers from the Kent Police firearms unit and a number of local patrols searched the area and officers quickly located the car and arrested its three occupants.

The gun was found to be a silver plastic PlayStation gun.

Det Insp Ged Boulton said: “As soon as we were alerted to the possibility of a firearm being brandished we deployed firearms officers. Thankfully we quickly established it was a youthful prank, but nevertheless the police had to take appropriate action to ensure people’s safety and maintain public confidence.

“It was an unfortunate prank and the teenagers involved did not consider the consequences. But their actions put additional pressure on our resources and the time spent dealing with situations such as this could impact on our ability to deal with genuine incidents as well as the preventing and detecting of crime. They have since apologised to the police.”

The 18-year-old was given a police caution, the 15-year-old was reprimanded and the 17-year-old was released without charge.