The number of children admitted to hospital with stab wounds has soared by 93 per cent in five years, according to new research.

As two more families suffer the unimaginable consequences of an escalating crisis, an investigation found that the number of children being convicted of knife crime offences was rapidly rising.

Knife crime was also found to be twice as high outside London, according to analysis by Channel 4’s Dispatches, chiming with warnings of a "national emergency".

It came as a man in his 30s was arrested in connection with two stabbings in central London on Sunday and Scottish actor Tam Dean Burn revealed he was recovering at home after being stabbed in an Edinburgh street after speaking at an event. A 42-year-old man was arrested in connection with the incident.

Bernard Hogan-Howe, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner who fronted the latest investigation, warned that more resources needed to be ploughed into less affluent areas and attention focused on the exploitation of children used by adult drug dealers.