Increase in knife crime led by young

The scale of London's growing knife culture is revealed today.

Figures show a crime involving a knife is committed once every 25 minutes in the capital.

An internal study carried out by the Metropolitan Police shows a total of 14,110 knife offences occurred between June 2003 and March - a rise of 13 per cent over the same period the previous year.

The figure excludes the offence of simply possessing a knife.

The Met report also shows that 39 per cent of offenders are aged between 14 and 21.

The findings are revealed as the Met announced tough new measuresto clamp down on knife crime under Operation Blunt. For the first time police are to routinely deploy a scanner which can see through people's clothes to detect hidden weapons.

Discussions are taking place about using the machine or airlinestyle detectors at school gates. A knife amnesty will also be announced.

Greater efforts to educate children in schools are also planned. The new initiative comes after a spate of fatal stabbings. They include:

Commander Simon Foy, head of the Met's anti-knife crime campaign, said: "The most worrying aspect of this report is that this is almost exclusively a young people's phenomenon."