SURREY Police are appealing for people to ‘surrender their knives’ with a week-long knife surrender starting next week.

The Save a Life, Surrender Your Knife campaign will be running as part of the national Operation Sceptre knife awareness campaign.

To support the campaign, Surrey Police will have knife bins at four police stations across the county, including Guildford, from Monday, September 17.

Forces are joining together nationwide to support Operation Sceptre, which aims to reduce the number of people, especially young people, carrying a weapon.

Officers will be undertaking proactive activities across the three divisions and encouraging knife owners to give up their blades anonymously. The surrender gives them the chance to dispose of a knife, with no questions asked, by simply dropping it into a knife bin at a local station.

Detective Superintendent Kerry Haddleton said: “We are pleased to give our support to this national initiative once again.

“The knife bins based in Woking, Staines, Reigate and Guildford will enable members of the public to hand over knives safely and anonymously and in turn remove these weapons from our streets.

“Our message to those who carry a knife, or thinking of carrying a knife, is that it does not protect you and in fact it makes you more vulnerable and places you in danger of serious harm.

“We want to reassure the public we do not have an escalating knife problem here in Surrey.

“However it is essential we keep on top of this issue and that’s what makes our participation in Operation Sceptre so important. One knife is one knife too many.”

Knife owners can give up their weapons safely and without fear of prosecution by dropping them in bins located at the four designated police stations across the county in from September 17-24.

In addition to the amnesty bins, officers will be conducting weapons sweeps, attending local schools and conducting proactive patrols across the county.

Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner David Munro said: “In the wrong hands knives can be deadly weapons, as we’ve all too often seen with some of the sad events across the country in recent times.

“Knife crime thankfully remains low in Surrey but we’re not immune to the problem and we must continue to raise awareness, particularly amongst young people, that carrying a blade can have fatal consequences.

“I hope this amnesty is an opportunity to help rid our streets of these weapons and spread the message that those carrying knives pose a serious danger to both themselves and those around them.”

•Anyone with information on knife crime should call 101 or report online. In an emergency always dial 999 police stress.