POLICE have hailed the success of a knife amnesty in a Suffolk town, saying “potentially lethal” weapons had been taken off the streets.

Eighty-five sharp items were posted in a mobile bin outside Woodbridge Police Station during April.

They included a number of kitchen knives, a bayonet, and two swords, including one samurai-style weapon that was presented to a war veteran in Burma, who no longer wanted to keep it.

The weapons amnesty was part of Suffolk police’s year-long Bin a Blade campaign.

Inspector Chris Gilmore, of the Woodbridge Safer Neighbourhood Team, said he was pleased with the response to the appeal.

“There were a lot of kitchen-type knives handed in and we also had a meat cleaver and a bayonet knife.

“They are weapons that could be very dangerous in the wrong hands – all of them potentially lethal.”

The weapons will be securely stored before being shredded at the end of the year.

Insp Gilmore said he would be trying to find a regimental museum that may be interested in showcasing the sword handed in by the war veteran, who lives in Grundisburgh.

Suffolk police currently has four permanent, secure knife bins outside police stations in Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds, Lowestoft and Mildenhall.

The red mobile bin which was at Woodbridge is now heading to Felixstowe Police Station, in High Road West, for two months.

A second mobile bin was outside Stowmarket during April, when 44 knives were deposited, and it will remain there during May.

A number of other initiatives are planned to run alongside the countywide amnesty, including a community TV commercial raising awareness of the possible outcomes of carrying a knife.