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Number of people killed in London has fallen by a quarter, says Scotland Yard

Cressida Dick says a 30% increase in stop and searches is behind the drop in violent crime in the capital.

Knife crime has fallen in the capital
Image: The number of killings in London has fallen by a quarter
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The number of killings in London is down by a quarter and injuries from stabbings among under 25s has fallen by 15%, Britain's most senior police officer has said.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said officers had seized £101m in criminal cash as part of a crackdown on violence in the capital, and credited a 30% increase in stop and searches for the drop in violent crime in the capital.

Speaking at Scotland Yard on Thursday, she said efforts to tackle violent crime had been stepped up in the last year and were beginning to see "real progress".

Cressida Dick
Image: Cressida Dick said stop and search had been 'very effective'

"My key metric has always been injury to under 25s, especially on the street, and we have 15% less, 311 less young people stabbed," Ms Dick said.

She revealed officers had carried out 172,000 stop and searches in the last year, which resulted in knives and guns being confiscated every day.

The seizure of criminal cash was up 50% on the previous year.

Ms Dick said: "We know that has a big impact on criminality. We know that if we target the money that takes us back to the drugs and guns."

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Image: £101m in criminal cash has been seized in the capital in the last year

She added: "I am confident that we will continue to step up our efforts and continue to make real inroads into these pernicious crimes.

"There is a large demand, there is big money to be made and there is a lot of fights going on between drug gangs. Those young people have either been the victim or the offender or both.

"But there is a whole range of other issues that have played into this. I believe we are suppressing the violence. That has absolutely, definitely resulted in the reduction."

In the last 12 months, the Metropolitan Police has recorded 122 homicides - 32 fewer victims than the period before. Those figures exclude the nine people killed in terrorist attacks in 2017.

Scotland Yard say homicides have fallen in London
Image: Scotland Yard say homicides have fallen in London

Figures show 25 people lost their lives in domestic incidents, 69 were killed with a knife and a further 10 were killed using a gun.

The majority of victims were men - with 83 being killed compared to 37 women.

The largest ethnicity of victims was Afro-Caribbean, with 50, followed by white Europeans with 44.

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Other types of violent crime also fell in the capital over the same period, including moped-enabled crime and acid attacks.

But knife crimes, including possession of a blade, saw a slight increase of just over 0.5% to 14,843.

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