Up to 100 Sussex Police officers will be taught how to distinguish between farmers and criminals.

The training course will be given after pigeon shooters were mistaken for terrorists and police time wasted.

The National Gamekeepers’ Association said “urban looking” officers, such as those based in Brighton, often did not understand the nature of rural crime.

As a result they sometimes swooped on and wrongly arrested people taking part in legal activities.

Now the association will fund up to four half-day courses in the county.

Tim Weston, development officer for the association, said in the past there had been cases of farmers in rural Sussex being arrested for legally shooting birds.

And he suggested people and police overreacted by immediately responding if they saw a camouflaged figure in a hedge holding a gun and aiming at the sky.

A Sussex Police spokeswoman confirmed police had taken the association up on its offer for training and the first session would take place in December.