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Londoners are being asked to turn detective and help identify thousands of criminals at the click of a button.

Scotland Yard is launching a free “wanted” app called Facewatch ID, which will allow people to see CCTV images of suspects in their area by inputting their postcode on their smartphone or iPad.

Anyone recognising a suspect can press the face and type in a name or an address on the screen.

Only those wanted for minor crimes such as shoplifting or anti-social behaviour are featured — though police hope this will change.

They say information will be treated in confidence but the app has been designed to be not entirely anonymous to deter pranksters.

The app, developed in partnership with the Facewatch online crime reporting system, is being launched today with more than 2,000 images.

In internal tests, the Met identified 26 suspects.

The City of London and the British Transport police are planning to join the scheme before it is rolled out across Britain.

Met Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said: “I would encourage as many people as possible to view these images and send in information.”