Police to give hundreds of stab kits to pubs

PUBS and clubs in London’s financial district are to be given more than 300 stab kits, police have announced.

City of London Police said it is distributing 320 emergency “bleed control” kits to venues around the Square Mile, which contain emergency trauma dressings and specialised tourniquets.

The initiative comes amid rising violent crime in the capital, with the Met Police launching more than 100 murder investigations in the year up to September.

Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show the City of London experienced a sharp rise in knife crime last year, up 43 per cent to 57 incidents in 2018-19.

City of London Police said it would be prioritising kits for venues with late licences.

The initiative comes after 50 bleed kits were given to pubs in Birmingham earlier this year. It is being run with the Daniel Baird Foundation, a charity set up in the name of a stabbing victim.

Mr Baird was 26 when he was fatally stabbed at a pub in Digbeth, Birmingham. His mother, Lynne Baird, who started the foundation, believes her son would have survived had he been treated with a bleed control kit. City of London Police’s Assistant Commissioner, Alistair Sutherland, said: “The City of London Police is proud to launch this initiative, in partnership with the Daniel Baird Foundation, as part of Lynne’s passionate campaign in memory of her son.

‘Daniel’s death was a tragedy that no parent should ever have to suffer’

These kits will help us achieve our aim of making the City as safe as possible for the people who live, work and visit the Square Mile.

“Daniel’s death was a tragedy that no parent should ever have to suffer.

“The initiative we’re launching with Lynne’s foundation today, will help Daniel’s memory go on in the lives that will be saved.”

A 19-year-old man was stabbed to death in Hackney on Saturday, and a 17-yearold boy was taken to hospital after being stabbed in Richmond Green, west London on Friday night.

Figures from October show that 15,023 knife crime offences have been recorded in the capital so far this year.