'Visible armed police' for Liverpool and Wirral Giants event

About one million people turned out to see the show in 2014

Armed police will be patrolling the streets of Merseyside for the Liverpool's Dream Giants event.

Thousands are expected to watch the final show in the Giants trilogy in Wirral and Liverpool from Thursday.

Armed officers will be deployed alongside uniformed and plain-clothed police "to deter, detect and disrupt" crime, Merseyside Police said.

The force has stressed the tactic is "not in response to any specific threat".

Armed officers will be deployed alongside plain-clothed officers, Merseyside Police said

The free show starts at 15:00 BST on Thursday and ends at 16:00 on Sunday. Two events in 2012 and 2014 drew hundreds of thousands of visitors.

Merseyside Police said visible armed patrols had not been used at the previous two Giants events.

Supt Mark Morgan said the deployment was part of Project Servator, a policing tactic that uses specially trained, highly visible and covert police officers.

Following attacks in recent years, many police forces have increased visible armed policing at large events.

Project Servator can see other resources such as behavioural detection officers, dogs, marine police units, vehicle checkpoints, automatic number plate recognition and CCTV.

People crowded onto Liverpool's streets four years ago

Behavioural detection officers have been specially trained to spot tell-tale signs that a person may be carrying out "hostile reconnaissance", according to the Ministry of Defence.

Giants in Merseyside

• The Giants trilogy began in 2012 with the Sea Odyssey, inspired by the Titanic, and saw the Little Girl Giant travel through the city with her dog Xolo to meet the Diver

• It attracted crowds of around 800,000 and generated £32m, Liverpool City Council said

• The huge puppets returned two years later as part of the city's World War One commemorations, where they were joined by the Grandmother Giant in Memories of August 1914

• That show attracted about one million people and generated £46m, the council said

• This time the Liverpool's Dream show will see the marionettes cover a 20-mile route across both sides of the Mersey with a new addition, the Little Boy Giant

Supt Morgan said there will be "daily Project Servator deployments of both uniformed and plain-clothed officers, a tactic used in other areas of the country and launched in Merseyside in July."

"It is designed to deter, detect and disrupt a range of criminal activity and will include visible armed police", he said.

Merseyside Police said they are "ready to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors to Liverpool and New Brighton"