Police seize 2,000 blades in just four months

Police have seized nearly 2,000 knives from the streets of London in only four months in the battle to stem the number of stabbings.

The figure was revealed as Scotland Yard started a hardhitting advertising campaign aimed at preventing teenagers routinely carrying knives.

A film will be featured on music channels such as MTV showing a teenager casually putting a kitchen knife into the waistband of his trousers before leaving home. After a fatal stabbing he is then shown walking past a stream of people including the youth he attacks, the victim's girlfriend and family and the police who arrest him. A poster also depicts the scene.

Commander Mark Simmons, one of the officers leading the Operation Blunt 2 anti-knife campaign, said: "We are trying to get the message across that if you carry a knife then you will probably end up using it and the consequences for your victim will be terrible and the consequences for you will be terrible.

"We hope that this will be fairly hard-hitting."

Mr Simmons added that police had seized more than 1,900 knives in stop-andsearch operations since the beginning of May.

He said that police tactics ranged from work in schools to the covert targeting of gang members.