Street crime in London has fallen by a third since the start of the year, according to the latest police figures.

Muggings have fallen from 6,945 in January 2002 to 4,786 in July.

Police believe the figures show the success of Operation Safer Streets, in which traffic officers were taken off their usual beat to concentrate on London's crime hotspots.

Commissioner Sir John Stevens said : "We knew in January that we had a real problem with street crime across the capital and Operation Safer Streets was set up to address it urgently.

Terrorism threat

"The figures demonstrate that the Met has delivered on street crime, but we cannot take our eye off the ball."

Rising street crime had been partly attributed to the need for police officers to concentrate on the threat of terrorism after 11 September.

But London's figures had prompted Home Secretary David Blunkett to issue a six-month ultimatum to the Metropolitan Police in February.

Violent crime

He told the force to sort out violent street crime by summer or he would send in his own management squad.

The figures released on Thursday show there was still an average of 154 muggings a day last month.

Although there has been a general decline since January, there were more muggings in July than in June, when figures reached 4,726 - the lowest of the year.