These dramatic images today reveal Scotland Yard’s new hardline war on London’s violent moped gangs.

Extraordinary dashcam footage shows police pursuit drivers ramming fleeing moped thugs, sending them sprawling in the road. Police said the new strategy of ending pursuits with what the Met calls “tactical contact” was now in common use across London.

The Met say the tactics are being used by specially trained “Skorpion” drivers and are designed to quickly end pursuits before riders or the public are injured. Scotland Yard released the footage today with a warning to moped thugs that officers will pursue them even if they discard their helmets or ride dangerously.

In the past police have abandoned chases in some cases because officers feared they could be prosecuted if riders are injured or die. Today’s dashcam images show fleeing moped riders being hit from behind by police drivers and sent tumbling over the bonnet of police cars or into the road. Some are clearly shocked by what has happened.

Senior officers admit some riders have been injured in the incidents and these cases have been referred to the police watchdog.

Police say it is just one of a range of new measures, called Operation Venice, to tackle gangs who steal mopeds and use them to rob pedestrians of phones and other valuables. Victims have included money expert Martin Lewis and comedian Michael McIntyre, robbed by two men on a moped while parked outside his children’s school.

There have been 2,000 swoops in Operation Venice so far, leading to 736 arrests. Figures this year showed the number of offences by criminals on mopeds had increased 30-fold in five years in London. Some riders have stolen up to 30 phones in an hour. In May two teenage robbers dubbed “21st century highwaymen” were each jailed for more than 20 years after stabbing charity worker Abdul Samad to death in Paddington to get his iPhone.

Police say a combination of tactics — which also include using scrambler bikes, DNA sprays and stinger devices to deflate tyres — is reducing moped crime. Figures show 12,419 moped-related offences from January to October, compared with 19,455 in the same period last year, down 44 per cent.

Met Commander Amanda Pearson said police drivers weighed up the risks of making contact, adding: “The public quite rightly expect us to intervene to keep London safe.”