POLICE conducted a weapons sweep at Dudley's Priory Park as part of the force's on-going bid to reduce knife crime.

Five officers searched the historic ruins and nearby bushes on Friday morning looking for knives, blades and any other weapons that had been discarded.

The sweep was part of Operation Sceptre, a nationwide campaign to tackle knife crime and also followed three stabbings - including one fatal - that took place in Sedgley, Lower Gornal and Brierley Hill within the space of eight days.

Sergeant Adam Austin, who was leading the search in Dudley, said: "One of the tactics to do this is weapon sweeps, where we comb public spaces and areas where weapons may be hidden or stored."

He said the decision to search the park was "intelligence led" and "through our own hunches", adding: "We know this is a public space that is used regularly by a lot of people and we don't want knives or weapons that may be stored being used by people who access the park."

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Sgt Austin said sweeps are carried out every two to three months and officers often find knives, saws, hammers and other tools that could be used as weapons.

He continued: "When we find weapons, we take them away, look at them and if there's any intelligence to suggest its linked to any offences we can do scientific tests on them. If there's not and there's no DNA, fingerprints or bodily fluids on them, we just destroy them."

No weapons were found during the search, which Sgt Austin said was "the best result", adding: "This is quite a well kept park compared to other places we've searched."

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