Pubs and clubs in London's financial district are to be given more than 300 stab kits in the wake of rising knife crime, police have announced.

City of London Police said it is distributing 320 emergency "bleed control" kits to venue’s around the Square Mile, which contain emergency trauma dressings and specialized tourniquets.

The initiative comes amid rising violent crime in the capital, with the Met Police launching more than 100 murder investigations in the year up to September.

Latest figures from the Office of National Statistics show that the City of London saw a steep rise in knife crime last year, up 43 percent to 57 incidents in 2018-19.

City of London Police said it would be prioritising giving kits to venues with late licences serving beyond midnight.

The London initiative comes after 50 bleed kits were given to pubs in Birmingham earlier this year, and is being run with the charity the Daniel Baird Foundation, which was set up in memory of stabbing victim Daniel Baird.

Mr Baird was just 26 when he was fatally stabbed at a pub in Digbeth, Birmingham, following a night out with friends in 2017. His mother Lynne Baird, who started the foundation, believes her son would have survived had he been treated with a bleed control kid.