KNIFE crime in Harrow will not be tolerated, the borough commander said this week.

Following last week's three stabbings, Harrow police are fighting back against the wave of crime facing the town centre and urge young people to think before picking up a knife.

Two teenage boys were stabbed by a gang of knife-wielding robbers on October 5.

The suspects, who were all black, set a dog on schoolchildren at Harrow bus station before robbing five people of their mobile phones and viciously stabbing two 16 year-old boys who refused to hand over their property.

One schoolboy victim was chased into Snax, a cafe near Harrow-on-the-Hill tube station, where he was stabbed twice. A second boy was stabbed at the bus station.

A boy from Acton was arrested on the same day but has since been bailed.

No further arrests have been made, despite 25 witnesses coming forward as well as extensive CCTV footage.

Detective Sergeant Richard Tobias said: "The suspects are likely to be from Hammersmith or Acton. We have realised this because of their complete lack of knowledge of CCTV in the area."

Just four days later a 65 year-old man was stabbed in the neck in Greenhill Road. Finally home from hospital, the victim is recovering with his family's support.

A 19-year-old was arrested in connection with the attack and was detained under the Mental Health Act.

Chief Superintendent Bob Carr, Harrow's borough commander, said the police will step up their patrols in the town centre and have applied for a dispersal order, which will allow police to move people on and forbid them to return to the area within a certain amount of time.

He said: "Knife crime is one of our main priorities and we have always had a zero tolerance attitude towards it.

"We are as disturbed by the whole thing as anybody else is and there are a couple of things we intend to do."

"We are working closely with high schools. Schools officers are based inside each of the schools to ensure pupils remain safe on and around the school premises."

Operation Blunt, which launches next week, aims to educate youths and make them aware of the dangers of carrying knives.

The borough commander has written a personal letter to each secondary school pupil explaining the dangers and the police have distributed 20,000 anti-knife crime leaflets.