UK knife crime rate hits 10-year high, averaging over 60 a day, stats show

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The annual number of knife and offensive weapon crimes in the United Kingdom has hit a 10-year high — averaging more than 60 a day, statistics show.

According to the Ministry of Defense, which records 12-month periods ending in September, there were 22,286 of such crimes through September 2019, the highest since 2009 (when 26,364 were reported), The Telegraph said.

In 2014 the number of knife crimes was 16,220.

The steady rise of knife offenses in the U.K. comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Cabinet leaders this week that every department in the government “should consider itself a criminal justice department" in order to tackle the “complex issues of crime.”

UK COMPANY TO SELL KNIVES WITH SQUARE TIPS

"We are putting 20,000 more police on the streets,” Johnson vowed, according to The Telegraph. "I want to see crime come down. I want to see the… drugs gangs wound up, rolled up.”

"They are reducing the quality of life for people across our country,” he added. “They are killing young kids.”

A cutlery company in England, Viners, recently unveiled a new line of kitchen knives with square tips in an effort to reduce knife crime there.

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The firm said it has designed the square-ended knives “shaped to reduce and prevent injuries, accidents and fatalities” while still maintaining their functionality.

The knives were “repeatedly tested to ensure the tip does not pierce skin intentionally or otherwise,” Viners representatives told The Telegraph.