A female genital mutilation (FGM) expert is urging east Londoners to “break taboo” to protect children from the practice.

Reeba Oliver, a consultant at Whipps Cross Hospital’s specialist FGM unit, the Lotus Clinic, wants people to contact the police if they suspect a child is at risk from the abusive procedure.

Experts have branded the school summer holidays “cutting season”, as families will travel abroad with their young daughters to have the practice carried out.

Ms Oliver said: “We are not certain how big the issue is. In the last year almost 6,000 new cases have been identified, but what we do not know is how many cases are also underground.

“Some government documents say around 50 per cent of the problem may have not even been discovered yet.

“Whipps Cross is hugely impacted as you usually find these cases in women of North African origin and we treat a lot of people from that community at this hospital.”

According to the Health and Social Care Information Centre, there were 5,702 new cases of FGM identified in England in 2015/16.

More than half of all cases of FGM involved women and girls from London and the most frequent age range at which procedures were carried out was between five and nine years old.

FGM is illegal in the UK and carries a custodial sentence of up to twelve years for anyone who arranges for a procedure to take place in the country or abroad.

The Lotus Clinic saw 54 women between 2015 and 2016 and offers psychological support, as well as procedures to help reverse the physical damage caused by FGM.

Ten women treated at the unit had experienced FGM when they were under the age of five, and eighteen women between the ages of six and 10 years.

Ms Oliver urged anyone who has experienced FGM to seek help by asking anywhere at Whipps Cross to be referred to the Lotus Clinic.

She added: “People in the community need to realise we have this service at Whipps Cross and we are completely non-judgemental.

“The whole team is just there to help, we follow up every case so they won’t even have to go to their GP.”