220 muggings a day in London

Street crime in London soared last month by nearly 49per cent, compared with January last year, according to new figures from Scotland Yard.

The number of street robberies in all but two London boroughs rose and the figures reveal that last month there were 6,754 street robberies, or more than 220 a day, while in January last year there were 4,520.

However, in the past few weeks, 300 officers have been redeployed to anti-street robbery duties under the Safer Streets initiative and Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens said today he believed street crime would soon be on the way down again.

Sir John said: "We continue to face the twin challenges of providing effective security in London and dealing with increases in street crime driven by mobile phone thefts.

"Our Safer Streets initiative against street crime is having a real impact on the nine worst affected boroughs, which have seen custody cells filled to overflowing. We are arresting more street robbers than ever before." The sharp rise in crime corresponds with the warning issued last week by Home Secretary David Blunkett that levels of inner city offences were "unacceptable".

Issuing an unprecedented warning to Sir John, he said he would use new powers to intervene if there were no improvement in tackling robbery and violent crime.

However, the latest figures confirmed a continuing trend of spiralling crime rates. The figures also revealed an 18.5per cent rise in crime rates throughout last month compared with December, which saw 5,701 street crimes.

Street crime levels for January had risen over the past year in all but two of London's 32 boroughs - Kensington and Chelsea and Barking and Dagenham, according to the figures. In Kingston, Ealing, Greenwich, Richmond and Waltham Forest, street crime had more than doubled compared with the previous year's figures.

Conservatives at the Greater London Authority said the statistics were further proof of the need to stem the rise in violent crime in the capital.

Richard Barnes, crime spokesman and deputy chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority, said: "These figures are further confirmation that the streets of London are becoming less and less safe.

"Londoners are crying out for someone to get to grips with this scandalous situation. Just what are the Government doing about the massive increase in street crime - the capital has never recovered from Labour cutting police numbers as soon as they came to power in 1997."

Mr Blunkett has indicated that there will be a clampdown on the visible signs of violence and street robbery within six months, while by 2004 there should be a complete change in the capital in order for its residents to feel safe.

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