Blood and guts tactics to stem teen stabbings

The footage shows a Swiss Army knife and a screwdriver sticking out of a stab victim's chest. It is part of a viral internet video which is being used in a drive to show the bloody effects of knife crime.

Eighteen young people developed concepts for the series, launched by the Home Office, and acted in radio adverts which are part of a £3 million campaign over the next three years.

The campaign will target social networking sites, including Bebo, as well as mobiles. Postcards depicting a hand mutilated by a knife attack are being handed out on the streets. There are two viral internet videos. The first features the images of knife wounds, taken from a medical photo library, as slides in a fictional medical lecture given by a surgeon who has to deal with such injuries.

A second viral, which will also appear on www.itdoesnthavetohappen.co.uk, shows CCTV footage - performed by actors - of a stabbing on a shopping street. One of the creative team, Khadijah-Murchison, 18, from Bristol, said: "All the young people that went to the creative summit have been affected by knife crime, so to share our experiences with each other and come up with ideas and adverts that will help reduce knife crime was great."

Home Office minister Vernon Coaker said: "We know that many young people carry a knife because they are fearful and these adverts tell powerful stories about the dangers of going down that path.

"People have got to get the message that if they carry a knife, there's more chance of it being used against them."

The programme found that young people carried a blade out of fear and through a dislike for authority figures who may have acted violently towards them.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair today unveiled a haul of deadly weapons recovered during the first two weeks of a blitz on knife crime.

He called for drastic measures in a bid to stem a surge of stabbings and attacks in the capital. Officers have stepped up stop-and-search operations after a wave ofmurders.

A 17-year-old boy's death last night has taken the number of teenagers killed in London violence this year to 15.

The boy was shot in the head on Saturday night in Gilbeys Yard, Camden, and officers from Operation Trident, the Met's black-on-black gun crime unit, are investigating the possibility that the shooting was a drugs-related gang attack. A man and three boys were today due to appear at Dewsbury court charged with murdering 17-year-old Amar Aslam, who died in Crow Nest Park, West Yorkshire, on Sunday.

Three juveniles arrested have been released on police bail pending further inquiries.

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