NATIONWIDE fears about rising knife crime have been mirrored locally with a 20 per cent jump in offences across South Devon in the last year, figures have revealed.

Knife crime and possession of weapons offences in Devon and Cornwall have shot up by 15 per cent from 858 to just 11 short of 1,000 from May 2018 to April 2019.

Cllr Roger Croad, Devon County Council’s cabinet member for community, public health, transportation and environmental services, revealed that 38 per cent of offenders were aged between 10-25.

He said increases were driven by male-on-male offending with the established network of drugs gangs and county lines – in which gangs from urban areas exploit markets in rural areas.

‘Nationally, offences involving a knife are at the highest level recorded. There were 44,443 knife offences in 2018, the highest since comparable data was first collected in 2011,’ said Cllr Croad.

He added: ‘These offences tend to be concentrated in London. Locally, there is evidence of small increase in certain pockets of the peninsula but there does not appear to be any evidence of widespread and large increase across Devon.’

He stressed that the two counties force area had the fourth lowest rate for knife crime, being the lowest among similar forces with an offence rate of 25 per 100,000 population.’

One revelation was the 50 per cent increase in offences of weapons found on Devon school premises, although the numbers were only 21 crimes up from 14.

A week-long bladed weapon amnesty in March saw 367 weapons surrendered for disposal.

Cllr Rob Hannaford, leader of County Hall’s opposition Labour group who had asked for the report from Cllr Croad, was concerned that children as young as 10 had knifes.

‘That would be extremely shocking for anywhere, but especially for this part of the country,’ he said.

He added: ‘There do appear to be some growing trends – but we are not a Birmingham or London. These things move down in trends and fashions, particularly with the connection of county lines that we are potentially having to deal with. These trends and the number of offences could grow.’