A vicious weapon crafted from a pencil bought at Kew Gardens has been seized by police in London.
The souvenir pencil, from the gift shop at the famous botanic gardens, had been fashioned into a potentially-lethal razor blade shank.
It had been modified into a nasty weapon by someone who had made a hole in the side and attached a razor blade to the bottom.
Police officers found the makeshift weapon in Kingston town centre on Friday, and tweeted pictures of their grim discovery.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">This nasty adapted pencil / blade was found earlier in <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Kingston?src=hash" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3175421-https://twitter.com/hashtag/Kingston?src=hash" data-vars-event-id="c23">#Kingston</a> town centre. Thankfully now safely off the streets! <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://t.co/3HsxNSQ84n" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3175421-https://t.co/3HsxNSQ84n" data-vars-event-id="c23">pic.twitter.com/3HsxNSQ84n</a> — Sgts Dave & Will (@MPSKingstonTnC) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/MPSKingstonTnC/status/695725704080707584" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3175421-https://twitter.com/MPSKingstonTnC/status/695725704080707584" data-vars-event-id="c23">February 5, 2016</a>
Members of the public tweeted police to congratulation them on taking the weapon off the streets.
Tracey Griffiths wrote: "Gosh!! Thank God it was found, shame you couldn't find the delightful soul that it belonged to as well. stay safe."
Officers later tweeted to say they were working to track down the owner of the horror pencil.
A spokeswoman for Kew Gardens said: "We have no responsibility once the pencil has been sold on to the purchaser."
