CAMPAIGNERS have called for a "loophole" in the law to be closed after the Manchester Evening News bought a potentially-lethal handgun - legally in a city centre shop.

On the same day new legislation on air guns came into force, we paid é200 for a new German-made Walther CP88, a powerful airgun, which could maim or even kill within a distance of 10 metres.

The CO2 gas-powered gun - which is indistinguishable to the untrained eye from a genuine firearm - can fire off eight rounds in quick succession.

Our purchase on Saturday just hours after new controls were introduced by the government.

The Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 made it an offence to manufacture, sell, transfer or acquire air weapons that use a self-contained gas cartridge system to fire pellets.

Firearms enthusiasts who already owned one were required to obtain a é50 firearms certificate from the police by Friday, April 30.

Anyone now found with one of these guns could be liable to a minimum five-year prison sentence. But the Manchester Evening News has established that some potentially-lethal air guns can still be bought legally without checks or licences.

We bought the CP88 in T Stensby and Co on Shudehill. Their staff acted completely within the law as the .177 air gun falls outside the new legislation.

It is powered by gas cartridges which must be inserted into the handle and which must be replaced on average every 80 shots.

The air guns which are banned under the new law are designed with self-contained gas cartridges, which look like real bullets.

Disgusted

The "loophole" has infuriated anti-gun campaigners Mothers Against Violence, a group set up to fight the gang and gun cultures in south Manchester.

Spokesman Sheila Eccleston, whose son Dean, 24, was shot dead in Longsight on October 9, 2001, said: "I'm absolutely disgusted.

"I would like to see all these guns banned. We go into schools to tell kids about the dangers of the gangs and guns and what message does this give to them?"

Paul Kelly, chairman of the Police Federation in Greater Manchester, has called for a ban on the sale of guns like the Walther CP88.

"Anything designed to be an absolute replica should need a licence in the same way as a real firearm," he said. "And so should any weapon that has working parts and can be converted to accept real bullets."

Linda Mitchell, spokesman for the Gun Control Network, set up in the wake of the Dunblane massacre, said: "All air weapons are lethal, full stop. They are capable of serious injury and there have been deaths. We really need to see legislation that covers all air weapons."