Scotland Yard today said police are seizing more deadly automatic weapons from criminals in London as detectives revealed that an innocent bystander was gunned down with a suspected Skorpion sub-machine gun last month .

Police believe two murders have been carried out by gangsters armed with the deadly military grade Skorpion weapons in the last eight months.

Last month Oliver Tetlow, 27, died in a hail of bullets when his killer stepped out of a blacked-out car in Harlesden and opened fire.

Detectives believe Mr Tetlow was killed in a case of mistaken identity and say the weapon used was a Skorpion sub-machine gun which can fire 1,000 rounds of ammunition per minute and is used by the Czech army.

The weapon has also been linked to the murder of bakery owner Erdogan Guzel, 42, who was also the innocent victim of a gangland drive-by killing in Wood Green in July last year. Another woman bystander was also struck by bullets but has since made a full recovery.

New figures seen by the Standard show that police seized 18 sub-machine guns from criminals in the capital last year, compared to 13 similar weapons in 2014.

Police also revealed that sub-machine guns had been fired in London 11 times in the last 12 months, compared to seven times the year before.

In October last year three plain clothes officers escaped injury despite being shot at by a sub-machine gun - also thought to be a Skorpion - when they were carrying out inquiries in Willesden.

Today police said there had been a “worrying” increase in the use of automatic weapons but they were seizing more of the weapons from criminals.

Detectives believe the guns are being smuggled in from Europe via established contraband routes or thorugh the post.

Last year a crime boss who smuggled eight Skorpion sub-machineguns into the UK via Parcelforce was jailed for life.

Alexander Mullings, 23, used a hidden phone in his Wandsworth prison cell to arrange the trafficking of the weapons to addresses in London. Three weapons were recovered by police but five were outstanding.

The figures were revealed as the Met announced a new crackdown on armed criminals saying they had recovered eight handguns and three AK-47s in the past week.

Thirty people have been arrested in a series of intelligence-led operations against gangsters while officers are mounting extra armed patrols and armed stops on cars linked to gun criminals.

Det Supt Damian Allain, of the Trident gangs unit, said: “There has been a slight increase in the use of these automatic weapons. We are seizing more automatic weapons and we recognise there are potentially more Skorpion weapons in circulation but we are targeting the suppliers to get them off the streets.

“Gun crime in London is low in comparison with other world cities, but we are determined to bring it down yet further.

“This operation is not just about catching people in possession of firearms - it’s about letting them know that police are out on the streets, targeting gun crime activity and disrupting their ability to move guns about London.”

He added: “We are calling on Londoners to tell police what they know about people in their community who carry guns. We will do something about it.”

He said police were also seizing more non-lethal weapons such as air and BB guns.

In a similar operation last year police seized 11 guns, including a Skorpion, three shotguns, six handguns and an AK47.