Situation is desperate, admits Home Secretary

London is facing a "desperate and awful" wave of knife attacks, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said today.

The Minister also signalled the Government would give the police fresh resources if needed to tackle the spate of knifings across the capital.

She said: "I don't despair but of course it is desperate and it is awful when you see those sorts of events."

Mrs Smith insisted that the Government, police and prosecutors were "upping their game" to the growing knife threat. She stressed that 400 detecting wands and 100 arches were being deployed by officers.

"There will be a deterrent and it will help people to feel safer in the areas where they are," she said.

MPs are to discuss knife crime on Thursday in a special 90-minute topical debate. The Home Secretary insisted that action being taken already included putting pressure on courts to hand out tougher sentences for knife offences and teaching schoolchildren about the dangers of carrying a weapon.