Zombie knife amnesty comes in ahead of ban

Det Ch Insp Ian Hughes of Essex Police says the amnesty is a chance for people to hand over the weapons with no repercussions

Police and politicians are urging the public in Southend to hand in zombie-style knives and machetes ahead of a ban next month.

From 24 September, the weapons will be banned under legislation passed by the Conservatives while they were still in power.

However, people in England and Wales have from 26 August to 23 September to surrender these items to police stations and claim compensation.

"This is about awareness and giving people the opportunity to hand over those weapons that they might have," said Det Ch Insp Ian Hughes of Essex Police.

Owning a zombie knife will be illegal from 24 September

"Essex is incredibly safe but one offence is one too many.

"We do see zombie knives and machetes being used but we are swift in our action, robust in the action we take and we want to make sure we help people, keep people safe and arrest those that want to use those [weapons] in offences."

"We have to be honest with ourselves, knife crime is happening.

"So what we need to do is focus our efforts on arresting suspects at the earliest opportunity, so we are daily monitoring those committing offences, especially linked to knife crime and any high harm type offence.

"This is about awareness and giving people the opportunity to hand over those weapons that they might have."

Southend West and Leigh MP said it was imperative that the weapons were taken off the streets

David Burton Sampson, Labour MP for Southend West and Leigh, said the amnesty was an important step and encouraged anyone that owned a weapon to hand it in.

"We need to get these off the streets, it's not good, it's not clever, we just need to get them off the streets to protect other people's lives," he said.