Banned knives are still on our streets

Zombie blade thugs commit 1,420 crimes in 2 months

- BY PATRICK HILL and MATTHEW DAVIS

THUGS commit hundreds of offences a month with zombie knives and machetes six months after they were banned.

More than 1,420 such crimes including robberies, assaults and sex attacks happened in a two-month period at the end of last year.

The real total is far higher as the nation's largest force, the Metropolitan Police, refused to provide statistics, saying it would take too long to filter out all the offences.

Since last September anyone selling or making 'zombie-style' knives and machetes faces jail.

And last week Home Secretary Yvette Cooper unveiled a ban on ninja swords from August 1.