A HIGH-PROFILE day of action to wipe out knife crime will take place in Hampshire today.

The police's force-wide operation will see hand-held metal detectors outside nightclubs, test purchase operations on retailers, and high-visibility search operations of people on the streets.

It is the second day of its kind as police continue the war on knife crime as part of their Operation Sharp campaign.

It comes as the Daily Echo continues its campaign, Carrying A Blade - It's Not Sharp, to stop people carrying weapons.

Under today's initiative, officers from all six police territorial operational command units will work with teams from the county's force support unit, dog support unit and tactical firearms support unit to carry out a day of activity.

Each area of the county will deploy tactics tailored to suit the specific problem in their area, with the aim or reducing and preventing knife crime.

Although some parts of Hampshire experience low levels of this type of crime, all areas of the force will be uniting to reinforce the message that carrying a knife is illegal and will not be tolerated.

Information about problem areas and trends has been gathered by analysts and fed back to various parts of the force.

Steve Watts, Assistant Chief Constable, Specialist Operations, said: "Knife attacks by strangers are still relatively rare events in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, but one death or serious injury is too many and we are determined to do everything we can to reduce that number and rid our communities of this risk.

"Our challenge is to prevent people from carrying weapons on the streets and warn of the inherent dangers."