ARMED police were highly visible across Sussex as the terror threat in the UK remained at its highest level in a decade.

Amid heightened concern over the possibility of further attacks, armed police officers from Sussex and Surrey raided an address in Worthing after weapons were spotted.

Police officers with guns were stationed at Brighton Pavilion, as well as Brighton and Haywards Heath railway stations.

Armed British Transport Police officers yesterday patrolled trains for the first time ever.

However, the extra security measures have also led to concerns about policing levels in the county.

Peter Kyle raised fears after the Paris attacks that the number of firearms officers stationed in Sussex was insufficient to prevent a similar atrocity here.

Yesterday, Sussex Police were unable to provide The Argus with the exact number of firearms officers employed by the force, despite just a day earlier changing their shift patterns to better cope with the terror threat.

After the Bataclan attack Mr Kyle raised concerns about Sussex Police’s increased reliance on neighbouring forces, and warned that in the event of terrorist groups targeting multiple locations with simultaneous attacks, the Met’s first instinct would be to secure London before coming to the aid of another force.

During yesterday’s incident in Worthing armed officers from Surrey assisted.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has insisted the need to call in troops to support police is not because of cuts to police forces but the country’s security is now set to become a key election issue.

Christine Bayliss, the Labour candidate for Bexhill and Battle, said 32 community police officers would be slashed to just five in Ms Rudd’s Hastings and Rother constituency

The former policewoman said: “Reckless cuts are putting community safety at risk.”

A spokesman for Sussex Police said: “Sussex Police is changing the way it provides local policing in the community.

“The proposed changes are subject to formal consultation with our staff.

“We must change the way we do things while operating with a reduced budget, so we can continue to effectively keep people safe.

“Sussex Police needs to save £35 million by 2021 and with the majority of our budget spent on pay we need to reduce posts in order to make the necessary savings.

“We have given staff details of the proposed prevention part of local policing.

“This shows a reduction in officers.

“However, these numbers are still subject to change following formal consultation and we are unable to go in to further detail until that takes place.

“We are not commenting on numbers as these are subject to change.”

Counter-terrorism agencies yesterday estimated that there as many as 3,000 potentially violent islamist extremists in the UK and the authorities are facing questions about whether any warning signs were missed before Monday night’s atrocity in Manchester.

Ms Rudd said Manchester Arena attacker Salman Abedi was known to the security services “up to a point”.

It emerged that Abedi was one of a larger pool of former “subjects of interest”, whose risk remained “subject to review”.

Reports have suggested that people who knew Abedi had raised the alarm over his extremist views in the years before his deadly attack.

It is understood the scale of the threat being dealt with by counter-terror agencies is regarded as unprecedented.

MI5 is managing around 500 active investigations and eight plots have been foiled since 2013, including five since the Westminster attack in March this year.