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Three recent high-profile confrontations with armed men highlight the dangers of policing in London, where officers encounter knife-wielding suspects nearly every five days, says one of the city’s deputy chiefs.

Most recently, a man armed with a knife was Tasered after lunging at a London police officer Monday.

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The incident follows an officer being stabbed in the head last month – he remains off work while recovering – and another officer firing two shots at a man who was advancing toward him with an edged weapon at a downtown intersection in September.

“The recent incidents of willingness to confront police officers with knives are very concerning to us,” Deputy Chief Stu Betts said in an email Tuesday.

“Our officers are often called to engage with people in a state of acute mental illness, or exhibiting behaviours fuelled by abuse of some substance, whether that be drug or alcohol.”

Last year, police were confronted by someone with a knife or another type of edged weapon every 5.3 days, on average, according to a 2018 use-of-force report that recorded 69 of the incidents.