Knife crime is one of the toughest challenges faced by Metropolitan Police in the capital as growing numbers of young people are carrying and using knives.

The dangers are well known, with 18 teenagers dying last year in knife crime incidents in London.

The Office for National Statistics data showed a 47% increase in knife crime in London in the 12 months leading up to October 2017 compared with the previous year.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced on Wednesday (January 17) that he was providing an extra £15 million to the Met budget to tackle the knife crime epidemic.

We shared the story on our Facebook page and asked readers to suggest ways knife crime could be tackled by police; here are some of the best responses.

Tougher sentencing

The majority of responses made mention of jail time and harsher sentencing for those carrying knives, as well as those using them in crime.

Readers John Chaundy, Mitchell Harrison, Francis Ann Bell, Dave Garmory, Davina Hunter, Naomi Schumacher and Pam Cooper all made mention of tougher sentencing as the cornerstone to any new policy to tackle knife crime.

Paul Coules put forward the concept of a six month minimum sentence for absolutely anyone caught with a knife.

"Anyone found carrying a knife will be given an automatic minimum six month sentence and they will not get out one minute early," said Paul.

"If they are arrested having used a knife in a violent crime then they will get a minimum five year sentence and will not get out one minute early.

"The important thing is that a 'minimum' sentence has to be set to prevent judges who 'feel sorry for them' from handing out soft sentences."

Fellow reader Rajjan Sund was also in favour of tougher sentencing, however he argued that more action was needed than a heavy deterrant.

He touched on the need for improved youth services and the socioeconomic situations many troubled youth come from.

"Improve financial situations for families that are struggling, so younger children don't feel the need to commit crimes like muggings, drugs etc," he said.

"Improve the availability for families who need help so youngsters can express their emotions rather than keep it bottled up."

Armed police

Despite becoming increasingly common, it is still incredibly rare to see armed police in London, even in high profile locations.

Naijur Rahman believes that police officers carrying firearms may deter young people from carrying and using knives on the streets.

Stop & Search

Both Mitchell Harrison and Lee Doc believe the key is to increase stop and search operations.

As the name suggests, police officers who suspect a person may be concealing a weapon have the authority to stop and search them.

The policy is popular among politicians who feel this is the best way to take knives and weapons off the streets.

However, the policy is not popular among black and minority ethnic communities, who believe there is a racial bias in the people selected by police to be stopped and searched.

Gangs

Gill Bailey says that membership of gangs should be a criminal offence.

Westminster police piloted a controversial scheme in 2015 under then mayor Boris Johnson, in which all known members of a gang were to be punished for the crimes of one member.

The highly controversial scheme was rejected by the two other pilot boroughs, Haringey and Lambeth.

Covert Operations

James K Green had an interesting solution to sniffing out errant teenagers - "young undercover cops from other areas on estates".

The undercover youngsters would gather intelligence about illegal activity in London's inner city areas which would be used to carry out raids.

Politicians

Several comments criticised the mayor and other politicians for not doing enough to tackle this problem.

Steven Hamflett said: "The first thing to do is to ban all MPs and the mayor from answering any questions with a response that refers to a previous party or MPs failing."

"I’m sick of them trying to divert attention from their failings while avoiding responsibility."

poll loading

Which measures should be implemented in order to curb the knife crime epidemic?

Keep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app.

You can set up your app to see all the latest news and events from your area, plus receive push notifications for breaking news.

Available to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android .