Gordon Brown has called for the age that teenagers are prosecuted for carrying knives to be lowered from 18 to 16 in the wake of a rise in attacks.

He said carrying knives is "unacceptable" and pledged more police powers to stop and search suspects.

He spoke out after a 15-year-old girl was found stabbed to death in Lambeth. She is the 16th teenager to be fatally attacked in the London this year.

The PM is set to discuss knife crime in talks with police chiefs on Thursday.

He will meet Brown holds talks with Dalai Lama ...
Hundreds arrested after May Day riots ... representatives from the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and the Director of Public Prosecutions at an early morning meeting in Downing Street.

Violent deaths

MPs are also set to hold a special 90-minute Commons debate on the issue.

Metropolitan Police figures show that the number of victims of knife crime have gone down. In the year to March 2008, there were 10,220 such crimes, compared to 12,124 for the previous year - a reduction of 15.7%.

However, the number of knife victims aged between 11 and 18 increased by 4.5% between April and July 2005 and in the same period in 2006.

Last year 27 teenagers in London met violent deaths, compared to 17 in 2006 and 15 in 2005.

Mr Brown said all MPs will agree with ACPO proposals that the presumption to prosecute those carrying knives should be extended to 16-year-olds.

"Every parent will want their teenage sons and daughters not only to be safe, but feel safe in our neighbourhoods," he said.

'Visible policing'

"That's why knives are unacceptable and we've got to do everything in our power to deter them.

"That's why the average sentence for carrying a knife is rising and that's why there are three times as many people in prison for possession of knives.

"That's why also we are using the powers of stop and search. That's why arches and metal detectors are being used.

"That's why we need visible policing to back up our safer schools policy, support for parents in their communities and the education programme we are carrying out."

Mr Brown sent his condolences to the families of those who had suffered as a result of knife crime in recent weeks.

It comes after the body of teenager Arsema Dawit was found in a lift at Matheson Lang House, Baylis Road, Waterloo, on Monday. A 21-year-old man is being quizzed by police in connection with the girl's death.

(BBC)

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