MUGGINGS rose by 23 per cent in London last month as thousands of police were sent to guard the capital’s transport network after terrorist attacks.

A thousand detectives have been involved in the hunt for the network behind the bombings on July 7 and the hunt for the would-be bombers on July 21. Scotland Yard has also contributed up to 4,500 officers to the high-visibility patrols on the public transport networks.

Figures published yesterday show street robberies rose from 2,869 in July last year to 3,524 this July. Muggings were already on the rise, with a 4.7 per cent increase in June compared with the same month last year.

The sharp rise in July is most pronounced in some of the suburban areas that have provided extra uniformed officers. In Waltham Forest, northeast London, for example, the number of robberies rose by 92 per cent from 110 to 217.

But Haringey, Southwark and Lambeth, which are inner-city areas, also experienced substantial rises.

In the City of Westminster, where patrols by police and community support officers have been drastically increased, the number of muggings fell by 7 per cent.

The figures also revealed that, figures for the period from April to July, compared to the same months last year, showed a 13 per cent increase in gun crime and a 9 per cent increase in violent crime.

Scotland Yard said that the public would expect security to be the Metropolitan Police’s priority, “but we are determined to make sure that we continue to deter, target and detect offenders”. The spokesman said: “At this stage we have not seen the increase in, for example, street crime that occurred after 9/11. The force has made sure that, where possible, officers are not abstracted from boroughs, more than is necessary.”

After the attacks in the US on September 11, 2001, up to 1,500 officers were deployed in Central London. Street crime more than doubled between September and November 2001. Crimes of violence, burglaries and thefts rose over the same three months in 2001.

Last month overall crime across London was down by 3 per cent comparing July last year to July this year.

Last month violent crime went up by 4 per cent rape by 9 per cent and gun crime by 13 per cent. But volume crime such as house burglaries actually went down.

• Yesterday Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, expressed “absolute confidence” in Sir Ian Blair, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, over the death of Jean Charles de Menezes. He accused Sir Ian’s “disgruntled” colleagues and his “many enemies” of trying to undermine him.

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