Victims to confront knife carriers

Mrs Smith unveiled a series of shock tactics including visits to A&E wards where people are being treated for knife wounds, meetings with the families of stabbing victims, and prison visits to offenders jailed for knife offences.

The measures are part of the Government's initial response to last week's horrific spate of knife attacks which culminated in the killing of four people in London in the space of 24 hours.

However the Home Secretary rejected Tory demands that anyone caught carrying a knife should expect to go to prison. "It is simplistic and wrong to pretend that prison is an easy answer to all of society's problems," she said.

"The police, as well as judges and community leaders don't want every single young person found carrying a knife jailed, especially when we know that tough community sentences including community payback, supervision and electronically monitored curfews are more likely to stop them carrying knives in the future."

Mrs Smith said that she had appointed Scotland Yard's Deputy Assistant Commissioner Alf Hitchcock to head up the police effort across the eight "hotspot" areas. She said that it was important that young people were made to face up to the consequences of knife crime.

Meanwhile, a man in his 30s died after he was stabbed during a night out, police said. The man was found stabbed at the Pepper Alley pub in Crown Street, Bolton, Greater Manchester, at 12.50am. He was taken to the Royal Bolton Hospital with two stab wounds but later died from his injuries.

A 19-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

And a man was in a serious condition after he was stabbed in the campsite of the T in the Park festival, Tayside Police said. The 22-year-old man was found by police with multiple stab wounds in the "yellow zone" of the Scottish festival's campsite at 12.40am.

He was treated by medics on the scene and taken by ambulance to Dundee's Ninewells Hospital, where he was said to be in a serious but stable condition.