A terrifying looking 'trench knife' is among items surrendered as part of a knife amnesty in Powys, police have said.

Officers from Radnorshire Community Policing Team published a photo of the combat knife, featuring a combined knuckle duster and sharp blade and originally designed for trench battles in the first world war, which was handed in at Presteigne police station.

The amnesty, known as Operation Sceptre, has seen more than 600 knives and blades handed in across the Dyfed-Powys Police area, following a week-long knife crime awareness and amnesty campaign earlier this year.

Speaking earlier this year, Inspector Tim Davies, who led the operation, said: “Op Sceptre was an opportunity for us to educate people about the laws around selling and carrying knives, as well as allowing people to hand in knives or blades as part of the amnesty.

“During this week, 661 knives have been taken off the streets, many of which were illegal items with concealed blades, which is a significant increase on the number of knives surrendered during the previous operation in September.

“We understand that this increase might cause concern in our communities, and we would like to assure that Dyfed-Powys remains a safe area to live and work.

“Our force has a lower rate of knife crime than the national average – in the year ending March 2018, there were 31 crimes involving knives per 100,000 of the population in Dyfed-Powys. Across Wales, this figure stands at 37, and nationally there were 69 knife crimes per 100,000 people during the same period.

“We attribute the higher number of knives surrendered during this amnesty to the increased awareness of knife crime nationally, and not to an increase in knife-related crime in Dyfed-Powys.”