93% surge in children treated for stab wounds
area. The roads are lined with multimillion-pound mansions behind imposing gates.
A resident said: “You don’t expect kids round here to be carrying knives and getting stabbed.”
A woman who lives opposite where Yousef died said she spoke to his dad at the scene.
She added: “He was in tears – devastated. I got him a chair and a hot water bottle. He was quite infirm, it was awful.”
Margaret Monteiro, who lives nearby, said: “It’s horrific… This is a quiet neighbourhood.”
Friends yesterday continued to lay flowers against the tree near where Yousef lay stricken.
And there were numerous tributes and photos outside Manchester Grammar School, where he was an A-level pupil.
Pupils laid flowers on his empty chair in their classroom yesterday.
And the school observed two minutes of silence in his memory.
The school said: “Yousef Makki was a dearly loved young man and incredibly bright pupil.”
The high master, Dr Martin Boulton, added: “It is impossible to make sense of such a senseless act, which has taken away a proud family’s son, a dear friend and a young man of such promise.
“There has been an outpouring of grief at school at this tragic loss.”
Annual fees at the school are more than £12,000. Yousef had reportedly won a scholarship.
One of his former teachers, Kathy Hughes, said: “I have very fond memories of Yousef… A bright, caring and considerate boy.”
Det Chief Insp Colin Larkin appealed for information and dashcam footage, adding: “Don’t do it for me, do it for his family who will have to go to sleep knowing FAMILY OF STUDENT YOUSEF MAKKI, STABBED TO DEATH IN HALE BARNS they’ll never see Yousef again.” He added: “The last couple of days have been devastating for Yousef ’s family – something no mother or father should have to live through.”
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said harsher penalties and tougher police measures, such as an increase in stop and search, may be needed.
He added the fact the attack happened in such an affluent place suggests the problem of knife crime is not confined to “one particular community or any one group”.
A GoFundMe page set up to raise money for Yousef’s funeral had yesterday topped £17,000.
A boy of 15 has been rushed to hospital after being slashed near Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in the Liverpool suburb of West Derby.
Police were called to Springfield Park, where he suffered wounds to his hand and stomach. His injuries were not thought to be life-threatening. A boy, 14, has been arrested and was in custody last night.
Lord Hogan-Howe, left, with armed teen, middle, in film THE number of children being treated for knife wounds has soared by 93% in the past five years, figures reveal.
NHS data – obtained by Channel 4’s Dispatches programme – shows an increase in stabbing victims aged 16 and under, from 180 in 2012-13 to 347 in 2017-18.
The figures also found the number of children and young people in England and Wales linked to manslaughters and murders using knives has risen by more than 75% over three years.
Knife crime rates are at the highest since the Second World War, when records began, and three children a day on average are ending up in hospital.
At the same time police funding has fallen by 19% since 2010, while officer numbers have decreased by more than 20,000.
David Thompson, chief constable of West Midlands, has said the issue should be treated as a “real emergency”.
He pointed out that his force has “reached a level where in police officer numbers it is smaller than it was in 1974”.
Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Hogan-Howe said a knife crime tsar must be appointed by the Government in order to “get a grip” on the rise.
Lord Hogan-Howe said the 93% rise was a “terrifying statistic” and “something has to change”.
He said: “You want to know day-by-day what’s going to get delivered. And I don’t get that sense of grip.
“If it’s not treated as a crisis, it will take another two years before we see action.”
In the documentary he is seen coming face to face with an armed gang member.
The teenager tells him: “I’ve got a knife now. I don’t want to pull it out, though. You’d never see me showing it off. It’s unnecessary. If you come at me with a knife, I’m going to pull my one out.” John Apter, national chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, blasted Prime Minister Theresa May for claiming there was “no direct correlation” between the rise in crime and the fall in police numbers.
He said: “Our Prime Minister is delusional, steadfastly refusing to acknowledge what is plain for everyone else to see, and in the face of a national crisis that is deeply concerning. “Policing has been stripped to the bone and the consequences are clear, splashed across newspaper front pages and TV news bulletins – children being murdered on our streets.
“What makes this all the more sickening is that it was predicted. This is the true cost of austerity that we warned of but were ridiculed for doing so.” Much of the violence has been fuelled by drug-related attacks and gangs preying on children to transport and sell their cocaine and heroin.
The gangs have been flourishing as the price of drugs falls while supply and purity increases. Drug seizures are down to the lowest level in 14 years. Many children drawn into gangs are among the on average 40 excluded from school every day. Pupil referral units, where they are sent, have become training grounds for violent offenders, a report by the St Giles Trust found.
And there is less government support for those more likely to be targeted by gangs. Youth services spending by local authorities in England was down by a third last year compared with 2015, with the total dropping from £622million to £416million, according to the Department for Education. Number of stabbing victims aged 16 and under in 2017-18 Percentage rise in young people linked to knife deaths in three years
We cannot believe our son has gone. This senseless loss has affected whole community