Government scrambles to fight knife crime

Britons convicted of carrying knives will be made to visit hospital emergency wards in an attempt to confront them with the reality of stab wounds, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said on Sunday.

Convicted knife carriers will also have to meet families of knife crime victims and people imprisoned for knife crime, in a package of measures Smith unveiled in response to a spate of stabbing fatalities last week.

"I'm very keen we make people to face up to the consequences of their actions," Smith told Sky Television. "It's a practical and tough approach to make young people understand the implications of carrying a knife."

The measures were announced as violent knife crime has been catapulted to the forefront of the political agenda by a series of high profile murders. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has pledged to announce new crime-fighting initiatives this week.

Four fatal stabbings in a single day in London on Thursday brought the total killed with knives in the capital this year above 50. Police say knife crime is their biggest priority, although they denied it had become an "epidemic".

Violence in the London became an international issue after the frenzied stabbings of two French students in London on June 29, an incident police called one of the grisliest cases they had seen. A second man was charged on Saturday with the murders.

The problem is not just confined to London. Earlier on Sunday, Greater Manchester Police launched a murder probe after the death of a man in his 30s with stab wounds. A 19-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder in the case.

Smith has written to all Chief Constables reminding them of powers they have to require pubs, clubs and bars linked with knives or guns to search customers on entry.

The Home Secretary wants the licences of venues that fail to do this to be revoked.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson will also write to health authorities asking them to report knife-related incidents.

In her Sky interview Smith declined to confirm a Daily Telegraph report there were up to 60 knife attacks each day in Britain, saying the government would release figures revealing the level of knife crime in the country on Thursday.

Police say that London is still safe for a city of its size, and that the overall murder rate has not risen substantially. In the year ending this May there were 162 murders. There were 155 the previous year, and 210 five years ago.

New York, a city of similar size and wealth, had 496 murders in 2007, and as many as 2,262 in 1990, before crime there fell.

On Tuesday the government is due to unveil its 100 million pound Youth Crime Action Plan.