Dedicated knife crime patrols have been put on the streets of Bromley following a spike in stabbings in the capital.

Knife crime has plagued London over the last year leading to a Government crackdown on gangs, drugs and “zombie blades.”

In Bromley, there were 70 reports of offensive weapons to the Met between January and May.

This is a figure that is down on the same period the year before, but Paul Warnett, the Met’s safeguarding lead for borough command unit south, told a council partnership meeting that dedicated teams had been formed.

He said “As everyone is aware across London we have seen an increase in knife crime in the last couple years it is fair to say but it’s come to the forefront of the issue with the amount of murders we’ve had. We now have dedicated targeted controls specifically for knife crime – intelligence lead patrols.

“We did ten weapon sweeps last week, we carried out five school presentations on the impact of knife crime, three targeted patrols – where we have intelligence that there may be weapons on people –  and we send patrols both uniformed an plain clothes in to see if we can make any interventions.”

At least 46 people have been fatally stabbed in London this year, with almost 1,300 stabbings in the capital in total up to the end of April, according to statistics from Scotland Yard.

Mr Warnett said of Bromley: “We have had some successes, we had a good arrest for offensive weapons – three weapons were recovered – a knife, hammer and a bottle of ammonia. And we had an arrest for what we call a habitual knife carrier – intervention officers arrested them for robbery.

“This is ongoing work but we have enhanced work on Thursday, Friday and Saturdays.”

Just this week police chased a suspect from the Glades Shopping Centre who discarded a knife – before being placed into custody.