Knife offences soar to more than 4,000 in West Midlands

New figures show the region is in the grip of a knife epidemic, with offences surging past the 4,000 mark during 2018.

It means there have been 80 offences involving knives every week in the West Midlands. The total increased from 3,332 in 2016.

Knives were used in hundreds of attacks, including murders, attempted murders, rapes and robberies.

The West Midlands Police data shows knife crime has increased year on year since 2016.

The news comes just one day after a 34-year-old man was stabbed to death in Halesowen - less than one mile away from another stabbing in the town 10 days earlier.

Last month, 34-year-old father-of-four Yasir Hussain was knifed to death in Lower Gornal after two cars crashed into a Chinese takeaway.

That came after the region was rocked by two serious stabbings in the space of 24 hours in October.

First Christopher Harm, aged 28, was found dead in Engine Lane, Brierley Hill, before father-of-four Richard Helm died as violence flared in Raven Crescent, Ashmore Park, Wolverhampton.

And last week a pensioner nearly had his finger sliced off in one of two Black Country machete attacks on the same day.

4,176 offences

In 2018, up to the end of November, there were a total of 4,176 offences involving knives. This was up from 3,951 a year earlier and 3,332 in 2016.

The most common type of offence is robbery. There were 1,606 robberies involving knives this year, up from 1,567 in 2017 and 1,181 in 2016.

Next was assault with injury and assault with intent to cause serious harm. There were 1,409 incidents of this type this year compared to 1,364 in 2017 and 1,272 in 2016.

Murders involving knives dropped during 2018 to 17, from 24 in 2017 but it was up from 10 recorded in 2016.

There were 40 attempted murder knife attacks, which was more than the 36 recorded 12 months earlier.

The figures also include people carrying knives. Possession offences rose from 804 in 2016 to 1,079 this year.

Pat McFadden, MP for Wolverhampton South East, said education, tougher punishments and more police officers were key to tackling knife crime.

He said: “This has resulted in a terrible toll of young lives being lost and families being torn apart by grief.

“This has to be a top priority for the Government, police and public agencies.

"We simply cannot continue with these levels of knife crimes shown by these figures.

"The right level of punishment is part of it as are proper levels of policing. Our local force has lost 2,000 officers in the last eight years."