Gruesome ad campaign showing bloody stab victims launched by Government to curb knife crime

The adverts show shocking images of the real-life wounds sustained by knife crime victims.

One film features two images of a stabbing victim with the knife still stuck in his body  - one in the chest, and one in the stomach.

Brutal: The Government hopes shocking images will curb knife crime

There are also a string of graphic images of gaping wounds, including a man whose intestines have been left exposed by a vicious attack. The opening lines of the film are: 'As a knife enters the body, it tears apart the tissue structure.'

It is likely to be viewed as the most graphic advertisements ever produced by the Government.

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.

Real-life: A Swiss Army knife and a screwdriver protrude from a man's torso in the footage

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 shows CCTV footage  -  performed by actors  -  of a stabbing on a shopping street.

Shocking: One of the real wounds caused by a knife

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.'

Gruesome: A man's intestines are left exposed after he was violently attacked

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 of murders.

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.

Officials say the idea was born out of the horrified reaction of youngsters gathered together by the Home Office when told of the physical injuries inflicted by a knife.

A second advert depicts a stabbing as seen from a CCTV camera. A brutal fight takes place in which the youth who pulled out the knife is stabbed.

The short films known as 'virals' will be distributed through social networking websites such as Bebo.

The launch of the campaign comes at the end of another week marred by knife violence, including the fatal stabbing of Harry Potter actor Rob Knox.

The Home Office argues that sentencing alone is not going to solve knife crime, and they need to change youngsters' belief that it is acceptable to carry a blade.

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.'

The adverts will run alongside a separate campaign targeting the mothers of teenage boys.

They tell mothers to sit down and talk to their child about knives in the way parents currently discuss sex, or the 'birds and the bees'.