Yet more knives seized in capital – but the mayor’s gone on holiday
A MEAT cleaver, samurai sword and machete are among the arsenal of knives seized by police in London over the past seven days.
The butcher’s cleaver was confiscated last Thursday as part of a weapons sweep by the Metropolitan Police in Camden, north-west London. A knife with a zebra-print handle was seized in Hackney and officers confiscated a serrated hunting knife in Islington.
It came as London Mayor Sadiq Khan was accused of being ‘missing in action’ for jetting off to Morocco for a holiday with his wife as the knife-crime epidemic spiralled out of control in the capital.
The mayor was spotted at Gatwick on Saturday being escorted by security before boarding a plane to Marrakech. It was just hours after the fatal stabbing of Jodie Ches-
‘Shocking but not surprising’
ney, 17, in an east London park. Mr Khan issued a tweet expressing his ‘anger’ at the violent thugs ‘targeting young Londoners’.
But Susan Hall, a Tory London Assembly member, added: ‘It is shocking but hardly surprising that the mayor is missing in action at a time when London’s crime epidemic rages on. This really does sum up Sadiq Khan’s complacent attitude towards spiralling violent crime rates in our city.’
The mayor’s office said last night: ‘Sadiq is on a short break with his wife’, adding that he would return to his desk today.
Five people have been arrested after a gang armed with knives entered the grounds of a college and threatened students. Staff at Runshaw College in Leyland, Lancashire, rang police yesterday after they received a report that the group were heading to the college by train from Manchester.