Knife crime: Cardiff stabbings prompt government help call from MP

A rise in knife crime "needs long-term interventions from UK government", says an MP after three people have been hurt in stabbings in Cardiff in 24 hours.

An 18-year-old was seriously injured in the early hours of Saturday while two were stabbed in what police say was an unrelated incident early on Sunday.

Local MP Jo Stevens said the incidents were "very concerning" and comes as the number of police officers has fallen.

The Home Office said it was doing "everything in our power".

An 18-year-old man was stabbed in Callaghan Square, near Cardiff Central railway station, at about 03:00 BST on Saturday and was taken to hospital in a serious but not life-threatening condition.

Two men and a woman have been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and are in custody.

Then at about 01:00 on Sunday, two men were stabbed in a serious incident near Cardiff Castle and taken to hospital where they are in a stable condition.

South Wales Police are still hunting a group of men who were seen running from the Kingsway area of Cardiff city centre and that road remains shut 36 hours later as officers continue to investigate.

South Wales Police said the incidents are not believed to be linked but Det Insp Matthew Cox said: "Knife crime has devastating consequences and tackling this concerning issue is a priority for us.

"Our officers are patrolling the city centre and are exercising stop and search powers when they have grounds to do so."

Knife crime has risen to record levels in Wales - with half of incidents in 2018 in the south Wales force area - and Ms Stevens, the Cardiff Central Labour MP, wants help to tackle the problem from the Conservative UK government.

"We've seen a decade in which knife crime has increased and also in conjunction with that, since 2010 we've lost 22,000 police officers from the streets of England and Wales," she told BBC Radio Wales.

"So 15% of our police have gone and we have the lowest number of police on the streets since 1981.

"A combination of rising crime and fewer police creates that perfect storm where you have increases in both minor and serious offences."

"Everyone knows that we have problems with County Lines drug dealing and criminal gangs exploiting children and young people, which is fuelling violence and the use and carrying of knives.

"It needs long-term interventions from the UK government to prevent the criminalisation of children and young people - that's what's at the heart of this rise.

"People feel that it's ok to carry a knife, it's ok to use a knife, and we've seen the consequences of that this weekend.

"We need the UK government to take a long-term strategy against youth carrying of offensive weapons."

The Welsh government has funded another 100 police community support officers while Ms Stevens added £22m is being spent every year in Wales on police and community support officers.

But she said community support officers are not enough to tackle knife crime as "their powers are limited".

Ms Stevens said they thinks education and opportunities for young people were needed to stop young people being drawn into knife crime at an early age.

"We've had youth services cuts in England and Wales over the last decade and these have consequences.

"You may not see them immediately but after 10 years of austerity and budget cuts, you end up with people being drawn into crime and being drawn into this fuelling of violence."

The Home Office said: "We are doing everything in our power to make our streets safer and protect communities from the devastating effects of knife crime.

"We have already recruited an additional 432 police officers in Wales and taken thousands of weapons off our streets through a surrender scheme."