Footage has emerged of the shocking moment a man with a knife is apprehended by members of the public on a busy London high street.
Police were called to Green Street, near Upton Park underground station, after a man in his 20s was stabbed in his hand in front of shoppers.
The video shows five brave members of the public surround the man and wrestle the knife away from him.
The video, filmed from inside a car on the road, shows a man in grey eventually get hold of the huge blade as the attacker is restrained by the others.
Watch the shocking video here:
Paramedics arrived quickly at the scene in Newham before taking the victim to hospital.
Police arrested a 16-year-old male on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and a Metropolitan Police spokesperson said:
Police in Newham were called to Green Street, E13 at 12.50pm on Saturday, 18 August following reports of a fight.
The incident happened outside Green Street Library. Large crowds were pictured on the other side of a police cordon which was put in place temporarily while the victim was attended to and lifted into an ambulance.
England and Wales has been suffering from an increased rate of knife crimes in 2018. Earlier this year, the Office for National Statistics published figures showing a 16 per cent rise, to 40,147, in police-recorded offences involving knives or sharp instruments, reports The Guardian.
Labour MP, and founder and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on knife crime, Sarah Jones, said:
It’s official, knife crime is at the highest level on record. The proportion of murders involving a knife has jumped from 30 to 40 per cent, and across the country young people are living with fear and trauma. Today’s figures confirm that this is a public health emergency.
The argument is being made by politicians of all sides, by campaigners, youth workers and other frontline professionals. We don’t need more reviews from government, we need concrete action.
We need a dedicated unit in government to work across departments to cure the growing epidemic of violence in our communities.
The surge in knife crime, particularly stabbings in London, has been described as an epidemic, pushing ministers to create a new, serious violent crime strategy.
Ché Donald, the vice-chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said:
Not only has knife crime gone through the roof, but murders are also escalating.
And yet, thanks to government funding cuts, we now have the lowest number of police officers since 1996. The figures show we have lost more than 21,300 officers since 2010 – that’s a drop of 15 per cent and the numbers keep going down every year. It’s like Groundhog Day.
The government recently launched a serious violence strategy, backed by £40 million of Home Office funding, as well as an offensive weapons bill to ban the sale of corrosive liquids to under-18s, as well as introducing tougher restrictions on buying knives online.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.