Gloucestershire knife amnesty sees 300 weapons handed in
- Published
More than 300 blades have been handed in to Gloucestershire Police during a month-long knife surrender.
Items collected at police stations across the county ranged from kitchen knives and ornamental knives, to flick-knives, machetes and swords.
Insp Steve Wood said he was "very happy" with the results.
Some of the knives will be used, along with others collected in other parts of the UK, to form a sculpture as a memorial to victims of knife crime.
Insp Wood said: "Many of these items you can legally possess. However, we recognise that people do carry them for criminal purposes.
"People sometimes have items in their household they are worried about, and this was an opportunity for them to take them away from the streets permanently.
"We recognise we cannot enforce our way out of the problem [of knife crime].
"The only way to provide a solution is to look at community conversations and multi-agency approaches, and by doing this it gives people a reason to have that conversation."
The national 26 ft (8m) tall knife angel sculpture is due to be unveiled in Trafalgar Square in London next year.
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