Today police begin a week-long crackdown on knife crime in a bid to take the blades off London's streets.

Officers from five south-west London boroughs - Kingston, Richmond, Merton, Wandsworth and Sutton - will take part in Operation Sceptre, ramping up stop-and-search, opening knife bins and more.

The operation is in its fifth phase and launched in July 2015.

In a previous four-week phase of "concerted activity" the Metropolitan Police said it conducted 405 test purchases and 3,293 stop-and-searches.

Some 844 knives, guns and other weapons were seized, the force claimed.

Gang squad officers have presented anti-knife information to 14,000 school pupils in the last year.

New London mayor Sadiq Khan has promised tougher action on knife crime and gang activity in general, including by making hospitals share data on knife wounds.

On Friday he attended the funeral of Lewis Elwin, 20, who was stabbed to death in Mr Khan's former Tooting constituency two months ago.

Last year 15 teenagers died in stabbings.

Carrying a knife can mean a prison sentence of up to four years even if it is not used.