TEN knives and a firearm in Oldham were deposited in amnesty bins and 101 knives were dumped in Tameside during a GMP week of action.

Overall, 632 knives were left anonymously in 10 amnesty bins around Greater Manchester between Monday, September 16 and Sunday, September 22.

Police say the project proved to be a huge success and officers are looking to roll the scheme out on a permanent basis in an effort to reduce knife crime incidents.

In addition, GMP made 44 arrests for separate knife incidents across the week, including people being arrested on suspicion of carrying a knife to commit robbery and three knives were recovered and safely disposed on the arrests.

Police performed more than 230 stop and searches were performed with seven arrests related to knife-crime and seven knives were seized.

The week also delivered 126 educational events with officers visiting to schools and colleges.

Superintendent Chris Downey said: “This is a great result for Greater Manchester as this means there are 632 less knives on the streets.

“The stop and searches have proved an important preventative tactic in reducing knife crime incidents.”

He added: “The consequences around carrying a knife are huge and range from being expelled from school, through to loss of life.

“A big part of my role is to inform people of the catastrophic after-effects of carrying a knife, with one point in particular being that even if you don’t plan on using the knife, just by carrying it, your chances of becoming a victim of knife crime increases.”