South Africa's police force has lost more than 20,000 firearms since 2004, a parliamentary committee has heard

MPs questioning police officials about the losses urged the force to take urgent action against officers who lose their weapons. They said they feared the guns were falling into the hands of criminals. South Africa - which has a high violent crime rate - has over the years struggled to control the number of unlicensed firearms in the country. The internal police report presented to members of the parliamentary police committee said the police had lost 20,429 weapons since April 2004. The police described the report as "worrying" and attributed the losses to a lack of discipline. The officials being questioned could not say how many police officers had been criminally prosecuted, disciplined or fired because of the losses - as required by law. The committee members said the police were being careless with government-issued guns. "I am convinced that many murders are committed with police weapons," Diane Kohler Barnard, opposition MP from the Democratic Alliance, said. It is unclear how many unlicensed weapons are circulating in South Africa.