Britain’s violent crime wave continues as the number of fatal stabbings across the country reached 100 this week according to an analysis by the BBC.
The first fatal stabbing incident reportedly occurred just hours into the new year when 33-year-old Charlotte Huggins was stabbed to death. The most recent victim is a 32-year-old man, John Lewis, who was fatally stabbed in Middlesborough.
In the breakdown of figures, 83 out of the 100 fatal stabbing victims were male and 17 were female. Almost half of the victims were under 30 and the primary age range for victims was between just 20 and 29 years of age.
Figures reported in April showed that 73 per cent of offenders and 53 percent of victims of knife crime were of a black or minority ethnic (BAME) background, and that two-thirds of all knife crime in London was carried out by people under 25.
The youngest victim claimed by a knife attack this year was just 14-years-old, and the eldest was 80.
The highest number of stabbings occurred in the multicultural capital of London, led by Labour’s Sadiq Khan, which has seen 30 fatal attacks so far this year.
The shocking reports come as the United Kingdom is witnessing a surge in violent crime more generally, particularly knife crime. The latest figures released in April by the Office for National Statistics showed that England and Wales had seen a 19 per cent rise in violent crime from the previous year, with 1.6 million incidents reported.
The figures show that knife crime has risen by six per cent from the previous year, with 40,829 incidents involving a “knife or bladed object” reported — an average of 112 every single day.
Homicides were also up by six per cent, with four in 10 involving a knife or bladed object.
A leading surgeon has said that the surge in knife crime is causing a “ripple effect” across the NHS and is causing operations to be canceled and putting a strain on ambulance services.
Professor Moran, the National Clinical Director for Trauma at NHS England, said, “it’s having a significant increase in acute services in the NHS and then a knock-on effect in elective care because you end up canceling surgery to operate in these cases, a knock-on effect on general practitioners who are having to try and pick up the pieces.”
The top medic even warned that in some instances, gangs were actually attacking patients in hospital to “finish the job” if they had not succeeded in killing them on the first attempt.