There is "no reason" why passengers using London's new Night Tube will not be as safe as they are on daytime services, the officer responsible for policing the Underground has insisted.

Superintendent Chris Horton, of British Transport Police (BTP), said around 100 officers will be on patrol across the network when the all-night service launches on Friday after London Mayor Sadiq Khan provided a £3.4 million funding boost.

The force will focus on "being visible" and ensuring that it is "able to intervene in places that are likely to see significant issues", he said.

Mr Horton said: "There should be no reason why people can't be as safe at night as they are in the day.

"We'll have more officers in the evenings. We're determined to make sure it's a safe environment. The most important thing is that people feel safe."

Trains will operate through Friday and Saturday nights on the Victoria line - which previously began shutting down from around 12.30am, and parts of the Central line, where some passengers had to get their last train before midnight.

Night Tube services on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines will follow in separate phases in the autumn.

The new service is expected to reduce the surge of passengers which occurs at around midnight as passengers rush to catch the last Tube.

Mr Horton said one of the main issues for BTP will be dealing with people who have been drinking alcohol.

"The hazards that we have are those people that maybe are a bit worse for wear," he said.

"Making sure that we look after people, which is our main purpose, but also making sure that people behave themselves and don't cause other people to fear crime.

"That is the main challenge for us but it's the same issue we have on a Friday and Saturday at the moment."

BTP will focus on known "hotspots" in central London and at the extremity of the network, where trouble can break out as passengers connect to other modes of transport.

Mr Horton insisted the Underground is a "low-crime environment", with fewer than seven reported incidents for every million passenger journeys.