iPhone gun application accused of glamorising gun culture

The application, available from Apple's online store, places an image of a gun on the iPhone and emits a loud gunshot sound when the owner points and shakes it.

Users can toggle a safety switch, pull a trigger, and reload virtual shells or bullets.

Several different gun applications are available, from revolvers to shotguns, including a "gangsta edition".

The French developer Damabia describes one of the applications -- Boom! Boom! --as recreating the "childhood game of playing cops and robbers".

A statement on Damabia's website says: "Experience the sweet release you can only get from a finely crafted firearm - a firearm so smooth and well-balanced it feels like an extension of your own hand."

Anti-gun campaigners are calling for the applications to be withdrawn immediately.

Claudia Webbe, the chair of an independent advisory group for the Metropolitan Police's Operation Trident gun crime force, told the Evening Standard: "This is hugely irresponsible in a climate when we are trying to get guns off the streets.

"I am stunned this game should ever have been allowed to have been made. We have spent years trying to get imitation guns out of shops and this sort of product undermines that effort."

Apple has reportedly not withdrawn any of the gun applications, which are believed to comply with the rules of its submission guidelines.

Last year, the iPhone manufacturer was forced to withdraw an application called 'Slasher' which brought up the picture of a blade on the user's handset and played the music from movie Psycho when the owner mimicked a stabbing motion.