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Scotland Yard chief Cressida Dick today pledged to use “Al Capone” tactics to curb the surge in murders and knife crime.

She said a new task force of 120 officers would focus on the most violent gang members and individuals to take them off London’s streets “for any crime”.

The Met Commissioner spoke out after two more murders in London — bringing the total in the capital this year to 55.

An 18-year-old man died from knife wounds after staggering towards police officers on patrol in Hackney while in nearby Clapton a man in his fifties died after being punched in a row at a betting shop.

Ms Dick told the Standard that the new Violent Crime Task Force would work with local police to target violent individuals and known crime “hotspots”.

In particular, officers would target street dealing, muggers and anti-social behaviour. She said: “We will put even more effort into bearing down on violent crime.

"You will see us being even more pro-active out on the streets. We will have a greater presence in the hotspots of violence and a focused effort, including intelligence-led stop-and-search and the use of specialists in covert tactics.

“We will be looking to target the people we know are the most dangerous and get the intelligence to our local officers which they can use in a fast-time way.”

She added: “We will be encouraging them to not just deal with those people for violent crime, or carrying a knife, but for associated crime, or indeed any crime. If we can get people locked up, if we know they are a prolific knife criminal or a very violent person, then that is all to the good.”

The tactics are similar to those employed against the notorious Thirties US gangster Al Capone, who was jailed for tax evasion when traditional law enforcement techniques failed.

Ms Dick, speaking a year after she took up her post, said police were witnessing more worrying “group attacks” involving young people, some of them involving extreme violence.

She said: “Some medical people are saying they are seeing more young people with severe injuries and we are seeing more concerted attacks by groups with a real determination to kill and that is very, very worrying.”

Ms Dick added: “We are seeing far fewer domestic violence murders. Last year there were less than 10, less alcohol-fuelled murders, less murders of older people, in their thirties and upwards.

However, we are seeing more young people, more group attacks and more knife attacks as a proportion of the whole. All three are worrying, and often they are very violent attacks.”

Tottenham Labour MP David Lammy described the London street violence as the “worst I’ve ever seen it.” He told the BBC’s Today programme the violence was being driven by turf wars between drug gangs, adding that drugs were as “prolific as ordering a pizza”.

He warned that the police had “lost control of that drugs market” adding: “I’ve been an MP now for 18 years and I’m afraid what we’re seeing today is the worst I’ve ever seen it.”

Ms Dick, who has set tackling violent crime as her priority as Commissioner, said she believed a variety of factors were driving violent crime.

Some young people were involved in street drug dealing and other crime where violence had become a normal part of their lives. She said: “How they have come to that is often a long road. I am not a social scientist, but many have had something terrible happen in their past.”