AN ornamental double headed axe has been handed in to Nailsea police station during the national knife amnesty. The axe was one of more than 500 bladed items which have been handed in across the Avon and Somerset force area since the amnesty was launched

AN ornamental double headed axe has been handed in to Nailsea police station during the national knife amnesty.The axe was one of more than 500 bladed items which have been handed in across the Avon and Somerset force area since the amnesty was launched on May 24.The haul includes 380 domestic knives, 86 non domestic knives such as sporting knives, 48 weapons such as sharpened screwdrivers, knuckledusters, flick-knives and throwing stars and 17 'items of interest'.The items of interest include the axe handed in at Nailsea, six Kukri style weapons given over in Bath and two small samurai swords and a spear and a sword handed over in Yeovil.Assistant Chief Constable Steve Mortimore said: "We are pleased to see 524 of these dangerous items off the street and hope to see even more of these lethal weapons put out of action by the end of the campaign."Carrying a knife is never acceptable and if you carry a knife for self defence, then you run the risk of having it turned on you."In 2005-2006 there were 2,500 incidents in the Avon and Somerset force area in which knives were mentioned, compared to 2,449 last year.