Savagery on our streets

There have been 37 murders in London this year, including 26 fatal stabbings. ÷In the year to March 2018 there were 285 killings in England and Wales using a sharp instrument.

It was an increase of 73 compared with 2016/17, and the highest figure since records began at the end of the Second World War.

Hospitals in England reported ,986 admissions for assault with a blade between April 2017 and March 2018, an increase of 15 per cent in a year.

There were 76 stabbings in the capital last year.

Police recorded 0, 69 crimes involving a knife or sharp instrument in the year to March 2018, the highest figure recorded since 2011.