The Metropolitan Police's gun operation seized 1,102 weapons from 2017-2018

The National Ballistics Intelligence Service said volume of guns at record high

60 per cent of guns sent to Nabis found to be stolen from legal firearm holders

The number of firearms on Britain's streets is at its highest in almost a decade, according to new figures.

The Metropolitan Police's gun operation figures show that the force have seized 1,102 weapons between 2017-2018, marking a stark rise from 2012 when the force took 1,019 guns off the street.

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The staggering rise comes amid the recent increase in gun crime and stabbings across the capital, with new figures revealing that the number of murders in the UK has soared by 14 per cent and knife crime by 12 per cent.

New figures have revealed the number of firearms on Britain's streets have reached a record high, with The Metropolitan Police seizing 1,102 weapons between 2017-2018

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The new data comes alongside information from The National Ballistics Intelligence Service (Nabis) that shows that the volume of guns and ammunition sent to its laboratories had reached a record high this year.

Of the weapons that were sent to Nabis from Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool 60 per cent were found to have been stolen from UK firearm certificate holders.

The head of Scotland Yard specialist firearms forensics lab Paul Gibbins told The Times: 'We deemed pre-2012 as the peak.

The National Ballistics Intelligence Service (Nabis) revealed that the volume of guns and ammunition sent to its laboratories had reached a record high this year

'Just prior to the Olympics and the Queen's Jubilee we were drowning in guns down at the lab and we have been getting back up to and are over that [level] now.'

Mr Gibbins added that while 20 per cent of the bullets fired in the capital came from shot guns, the increasing access to handguns brought from overseas factories was a growing concern.

The head of Scotland Yard specialist firearms forensics lab Paul Gibbins told The Times : 'Just prior to the Olympics and the Queen's Jubilee we were drowning in guns down at the lab and we have been getting back up to and are over that [level] now.' (Stock photo)

Last month police launched a murder probe after a 19-year-old man was shot in Walthamstow.

Also in the same month a drive-by shooting in Islington, north London, left a 34-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man with minor injuries from shattered glass.

In June, armed officers rushed to a scene in Peckham when two young men, both in their 20s, were left with gun shot injuries.

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The new figures follow statistics published last week by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showing that the number of offences registered as involving a knife or sharp instrument, 39,332, was the highest since 2011, when comparable records started.