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More than 2,000 recovered stolen bicycles are lying unclaimed in police stations across London after a crackdown on thieves.

Figures released by Transport for London show the number of bike thefts has fallen sharply.

Between October last year — when the initiative began — and this August, there were 19,052 recorded thefts, compared with 21,488 the previous year and 20,411 in 2011. TfL calculates this as a 10.3 per cent fall once fluctuations caused by extreme weather are taken into account.

But police officers are finding it difficult to reunite many bikes with their owners because of the lack of identity markings. They have put photographs of many bikes online on the Met’s Flickr account, but urged cyclists to register their bike details online.

Superintendent Rob Revill, of the Met’s safer transport command, said: “It is sad to see thousands of bikes lying in our police stations unclaimed as we cannot identify owners.”

Andrew Gilligan, the Mayor’s cycling commissioner, said it was essential to crack down on thieves because many people who had a bike stolen often gave up cycling afterwards. He said: “In the months ahead, you will see more initiatives from us to pile further pressure on the thieves and shrink the market in stolen bikes.”