KNIFE crime has soared to record levels in lawless Britain, shocking new statistics reveal.
Offences involving a knife or sharp instrument rose seven per cent in England and Wales in the year to September.
Fraud, vehicle offences and robbery also leapt, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show.
London’s knife-crime epidemic has raged on in 2020, with three builders stabbed to death in Seven Kings, North East London on Sunday night.
Narinder – Nik – Singh, 26, Harinder – Honey – Kumar, 22, and Baljit Singh, 34 were killed in a savage brawl, with one man charged in connection with the triple stabbing.
A Deliveroo driver was stabbed to death in North London in the first murder in the capital in 2020.
The killings come after the capital’s murder climbed to a ten-year high of 149 in 2019.
The figures released today show police-recorded offences with a knife or sharp instrument are up to 44,771.
But the number of homicides recorded by police fell six per cent – from 654 to 617.
There was also a 20 per cent drop in homicides where a knife or sharp instrument was used, to 221 offences, mainly driven by a decrease in London.
The figures do not include Greater Manchester Police, which records data differently.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to head up a new Cabinet committee to battle knife crime.
Mr Johnson pledged to ‘cut the head off the snake’ of criminal gangs that are ‘killing young kids’.
The PM has promised to put 20,000 new cops on Britain’s streets and told ministers each department should consider itself a criminal justice department to battle “complex causes of crime”.
Last week, it was revealed the number of people cautioned or convicted for carrying knives in England and Wales surged to its highest number in a decade.
Urgent action must be taken to break the spiral of violence
Barnardo's chief executive Javed Khan
Helen Ross, from the ONS Centre for Crime and Justice, said: “In the last year, there has been no change in overall levels of crime, however, this hides variations in different types of crime.
“For example, there have been continued rises in fraud, vehicle offences and robbery, and decreases in burglary and homicide.
“Although the number of offences involving a knife has continued to increase, there is a mixed picture across police forces – and overall levels of violence remain steady.
“We have also seen the number of homicides where a knife or sharp instrument was used decrease by a fifth, driven by falls in London.”
Barnardo’s chief executive Javed Khan said it was “unacceptable that the knife crime crisis continues to destroy so many young lives”.
He added: “Urgent action must be taken to break the spiral of violence.
“The Government needs to work with children’s services, charities, social workers, youth workers, the criminal justice system and communities to tackle this crisis.”
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