Figures from Cambridgeshire police show the shocking rise in knife crime in the county and the rise in children in possession of an article with a blade or point.

As a nationwide rise in knife crime makes the headlines, we take a closer look into our county’s battle with the problem.

Police in Cambridgeshire hold regular knife amnesties – placing bins at police stations across the county allowing the public to hand knives in without being prosecuted.

Here are ten facts and figures about knife crime in Cambridgeshire:

1: It is illegal to sell a knife of any kind to anyone under 18 years old, carry a knife in public without good reason.

2: One exception is a knife with a folding blade three inches long or less, for example a Swiss Army knife – carry, buy or sell any type of banned knife and use any knife in a threatening way.

3: Home Office figures show there were 411 ‘possession of a weapon’ offences in Cambridgeshire in the year to March 2017.

4: Assaults with knives and other sharp objects in Cambridgeshire are at their highest level in five years, according to hospital admission data.

5: In the 2016/17 year there were 69 people admitted for treatment in the health area covered by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group area.

6: Cambridgeshire Constabulary recorded 517 crimes in which knives were used between October 2016 and September 2017, an increase of 157 per cent on the same period in 2012-13.

7: The most common offence recorded in that period was assault with injury or intent to cause serious harm – there were 272 such incidents recorded in the 12 months to September 2017, 53 per cent of all knife crimes.

8: The rise in knife crime has also occurred in schools – from 2014 to 2015, six children under 18 were found in possession of an article with a blade or point in school.

9: That figure rose the next year from 2015 to 2016 – 24 under 18s were found in possession of a blade or point in school, one as young as eight-years-old from Peterborough – from 2016 to 2017, that figure grew to 25, this time two eight-year-olds were found in a Cambridge City school in possession of an article with a blade or point.

10: In July 2017 Cambridgeshire police held a knife amnesty, collecting 85 knives – they placed bins in police stations across the county. One recent amnesty found nearly 100 bladed items, including swords and machetes.