Extra £5m to tackle knife crime

GREATER Manchester Police has been promised extra cash in the on-going fight against knife crime.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced £5 million will be shared across the 12 so-called knife-crime hotspots, which include Greater Manchester.

Ms Smith said: “We all need to stand shoulder to shoulder to get knives off our streets and protect young people from knife crime.

“In the past 10 months we have stepped up action to tackle knife crime. Across the targeted areas, police have conducted more than 150,000 stop and searches and seized 3,000 knives since June.

“Nationally, we have provided 1,150 extra search arches and wands to help forces to take knives off the streets and reassure the public.”

The other targeted areas in the scheme are London, Essex, Lancashire, Merseyside, the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, South Wales, Thames Valley and newly added Kent and Hampshire.