This knife was seized after a 12-year-old boy brought it into school. (Twitter: @EalingMPS).

During her meeting, Ms Dick was told children as young as six have been seen carrying knives in the area.

Speaking to the Press Association after the meeting, she felt this was “pretty horrifying”.

She said: “It’s outrageous to hear a six-year-old is carrying a knife, for whatever reason.

“That’s something a police officer by themselves or even a police force isn’t going to be able to have very much impact on. The question there is what are the parents doing? What are the school doing?”

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Ms Dick said youngsters often carry knives for “some kind of respect, some kind of kudos”, but added: “I do accept there are places where some of our young people are scared and they feel it makes sense to carry a knife.

“I can say as long as I live that it does not make them safer. They may not hear that message from me... we need to get people in communities, we need to get people in schools, we need to get parents understanding and helping young people to understand... it will end in tragedy, probably, for them.”