26 deadly weapons found in knife deposit bin in Birmingham

Twenty six deadly weapons, including a number of knives, BB guns and tasers, have been recovered after being dumped in a knife bin in Birmingham.

The bin, at Green Lane Mosque, is a 24-hour weapon deposit system which gives people in the city the opportunity to get rid of weapons anonymously.

The initiative was started eight years ago by activist Bishop Desmond Jadoo and has been emptied recently - when the potentially-deadly weapons were recovered in Small Heath.

When asked what the impact of having a knife-bin in the community has, Bishop Desmond Jadoo said: "Well I think it speaks for itself because we've got 26 weapons off our streets.

"What appears to be a modified BB gun and what appears to be a modified piece of equipment that they've turned into a taser."

"That's the impact," the activist said, pointing at the knives laid on the ground. "It's 26 weapons off our streets."

He continued: "They're all not butter knives, some of them are far from butter knives.

"We can see that some of them are quite intimidating pieces of weaponry.

"I mean look at that you've got the serrated knives there, you've got another one over there. You've got machetes.

"This side of the city we've heard about machete knives for example, and I'm not advertising it but I'm glad that we've got 2, 3, 4 machetes in there."

He said it's all about the results, adding: "One knife is one knife enough. One knife can make a difference and can mean that someone's life was saved."

The bin was emptied in front of Birmingham youngsters to show them how prominent knives are in the city and explain the impact it has on people's lives.

"One of the good things about today is that we had a chat with some of the youngsters and it's important now that when we do this, we educate our young people about the impact that knives have - on communities, families, victim's families, perpetrator's families and also the wider community as well."