Celebrities have joined Met officers and Londoners in giving a “thumbs down” to knife crime as part of a social media campaign.

TV personality Phillip Schofield and former footballer Matt Le Tissier are among those to post pictures making the gesture in protest at a spate of knife killings sweeping the capital.

Eleven people were killed on London’s streets in just 16 days this year, while a man was stabbed to death in broad daylight in Romford on Thursday.

Danny O’Brian, who set up the non-profit organisation Anti-Knife UK in 2008, has started the hashtag "thumbsdowntoknifecrime" in a bid to take on the epidemic.

He lives in Ilford and was just streets away from the fatal stabbing in Romford.

Mr O’Brien said: “When something’s good you put a thumbs up and knife crime is bad so why not put a thumbs down?

“It’s a mad idea that came to me in my sleep, I write it down, tried it and now it’s got legs.

“We’ve got celebrities, police officers, basically every type of person from across the country. It brings awareness, I’ve got people saying ‘I never realised how much knife crime there was.’”

Police officers and cadets have published numerous pictures online, with Mr O’Brien saying he has been sent more than 1,000 snaps as part of the campaign.

The original aim was to see 2,017 sent to mark the year, but he is now optimistic of beating the target.

The severity of London’s knife crime has been laid bare by a spate of fatal stabbings, with the Standard launching an investigation into the problem.

Mr O’Brien marched alongside families of stabbing victims in Hackney earlier this month, calling on the Met Police and City Hall to do more the tackle the epidemic.

He added: “We’ve got to get away from it just being classed as a youth and gang problem. We are not just looking at teenagers being killed, we are looking at every age group.

“A lot of blame I put on the Government and justice system because it’s not scaring anybody.

“I would like to see in every school knife awareness classes, We’re not teaching them the skills they need when they leave school.

“I just feel that the whole knife problem is scary. I wouldn’t like to be a kid living in the London area at the moment.”