Violent attacks soar in the shires as ruthless drug gangs wage turf war

A KNIFE crime epidemic is spreading from cities to rural areas in Britain as drug gangs target new custom, according to shock figures.

Experts say counties surrounding major cities have seen an explosion in violence as criminals increasingly cross county lines.

Home Office figures reveal knife crime in Hertfordshire, Warwickshire, Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Essex and Norfolk doubled in three years.

The alarming statistics suggest people are now more likely to be a victim of a knife attack in Bedfordshire than in Greater Manchester or Merseyside. It emerged last month that London’s murder rate had overtaken New York’s in February and March. Knife crime was up 20 per cent in the capital over three years. But in the home counties the rise since 2014 is far higher.

Knife crime incidents in Norfolk are up 274 per cent. Hertfordshire is also up 150 per cent from 229 incidents in 2014 to 573 in 2017. North Wales is up 134 per cent, Hampshire up 102 per cent, Cambridgeshire up 83 per cent, Warwickshire up 180 per cent, Bedfordshire up 86 per cent, Essex up 86 per cent and Thames Valley up 50 per cent.

Vince O’Brien, head of drugs operations at the National Crime Agency, said rises were fuelled by gangs seeking new customers.

“There is an increasing level of violence coming from city gangs establishing themselves in new drugs markets in rural areas,” he said.

“Counties which surround London are being affected.”

A Home Office report links rising violence to “county lines” drug dealing, where city gangs sell drugs direct to users in the provinces, forcing out local dealers usually by violence. There are now 720 known drug operations that export heroin and cocaine from big cities to rural areas, most from London, Merseyside and Manchester.

A crime agency report revealed gangs often bring knives and acid to defend themselves from rivals and expand their turf.

Andy Higgins, research director for the Police Foundation think tank, said: “Although the highest volume of knife crime is in London, some of the largest increases in recent years have been in the county forces.”