Britain probably has the worst Knife violence in Europe and in the world with almost 14,000 people taken to hospital for injuries caused by knives and other sharp weapons in 2007. This gives an insight of the troubled society and the level of violence people are indulged in. 

According to the latest British Department of Health statistics, an average of 38 victims of knife wounds are admitted to accident and emergency departments across the country every day.

Assaults and injuries from knives and sharp implements, together with sword and dagger injuries, resulted in 12,340 people being admitted last year – 446 of the victims were no older than 14. This is an increase of 19 per cent on the 10,372 admissions five years ago. The latest figures from Northern Ireland and Scotland bring the total number of victims in Britain to 13,795 each year.

This shows the number of troubled yough in Britain who uses violent means to get what they want and to extract revenge against gangs. Gang fight is on the rise in the UK too and this has resulted in more gang fights ending in death and beatings.

Dr Tunji Lasoye, A&E consultant at King's College Hospital, London said to the Independent on Sunday (IOS) the age of the victims has gone down. "We used to see people in their early 20s; now they are in their mid-teens. And 10 per cent of the victims we see now are girls, which wasn't the case four or five years ago."

The latest statistics from hospitals in England alone highlight an 88 per cent jump in the number of children suffering stab wounds – from 95 in 2002-03 to 179 in 2006-07. And among 16- to 18-year-olds, there has been a 75 per cent rise from 429 to 752.

New figures provided to the IoS under the Freedom of Information Act highlight how the number of people being prosecuted by magistrates for possessing knives has rocketed up from the 4,489 in 1997, the year Labour came to power. By 2006, that figure had jumped to 7,699.

Most were not jailed, with just 14 per cent ending up in prison for little more than three months on average. Suspended sentences leapt from nine in 1997 to 552 in 2006.

London remains the centre of what is increasingly viewed as a nationwide epidemic. Fatal stabbings of teenagers in London total 14 since the start of the year. In total, 18 have been murdered, compared with 27 for the whole of last year.

The capital accounted for more than a third of all under-16s taken to hospital with stab wounds last year, and has seen numbers of teenagers needing treatment rise from 139 in 2002-03 to 324 in 2006-07.

So far, 18 teenagers have been murdered in the capital this year. Now, though, the city's youngsters are uniting against the violence.

The Met's Operation Blunt 2 to search for knives on youngsters has since the operation started in May, helped the police to recover 528 knives and made 1,214 arrests. Last week the Met announced it was sending a task force of 75 officers to the worst affected of the 32 London boroughs.

Knives are not hard to get, like guns. You only have to reach into the kitchen drawer. Today's report by the IoS reveals that London has the highest number of hospital admissions for stab wounds among under-18s. Ten times the number in the South-west or along the south coast, for example. Only the North-west comes anywhere close, with just over half as many. But there may not be as many as Londoners fear: in the last year for which figures are available, 2006/7, there were 322 teenage admissions for stab wounds of any kind.

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