Met police arrest four for carrying machetes only days after IS attack on London Bridge

Metropolitan Police arrested four men in two days for carrying machetes near train stations in London earlier this week.

The arrests are not understood to be connected, but followed only a few days after Islamic State claimed responsibility for a knife attack on London Bridge.

A 16-year-old was arrested on Wednesday for wielding a machete outside Barking Station in east London while another two men were arrested for carrying machetes near Petts Wood station in Bromley, south east London.

According to eyewitnesses, the 16-year-old reportedly warned police that "something big was going to happen here," in the London Bridge attackers' home town.

A police spokesman said the man was arrested for carrying a blade and a quantity of Class B drugs.

The New Arab has seen a video showing the man's arrest, after police chased him down the road.

Armed police arrested another man the day previous on Monday, after retrieving three machetes from his backpack.

Armed police had followed the man from the moment he left the shop he had purchased the weapons from.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: "Police were called shortly after 2:00pm on Monday, 5 June, to a man reportedly in possession of three large knives who had boarded a bus travelling on Barking Road.

"The man was identified and monitored by police prior to his arrest at around 2:35pm on suspicion of possessing offensive weapons.

There has been a spate of knife and gun crimes in London in recent months, with official figures showing a 24 percent rise in knife crime year-on-year.

Senior police officers have expressed concern and have announced plans to work with communities to combat the growing trend of violence.

"We are concerned about the rise of gun crime and rise of knife crime offences committed by young people and the changing nature of the offenders," said Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt, head of Territorial Policing.

It is an offence to sell an offensive weapon or to sell any blade to under 18 year olds. The maximum penalty for carrying a knife is four years in prison in addition to an unlimited fine.