Mayoral candidate to install metal detectors to tackle knife crime

Every school should install airport-style metal detectors to tackle knife crime, the Tory London Mayoral candidate has said.

Susan Hall pledged to introduce ‘knife arches’ into every school in the capital if she is elected. 

The plans would make it the norm for all pupils to walk through security. 

At present, only schools in certain boroughs have knife arches.

Ms Hall also wants to equip frontline police with a metal-detecting ‘knife wand’, which would be less intrusive, and to increase stop and search.

It comes as documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show pupils as young as five have been caught with weapons, including machetes, knuckledusters and zombie knives, in the past year.

More than 1,100 knife-related incidents were recorded by police in schools between September 2022 and last October. 

Ms Hall said Mayor Sadiq Khan has spent ‘eight years flip-flopping on stop and search. It’s not good enough.’