The number of children admitted to hospital with stab injuries has increased 86 per cent in England since 2014, National Health Service (NHS) statistics have revealed, as the country battled a steep rise in knife crime.

Out of more than 5,000 people treated in English hospitals for knife attack wounds in the 12 months to September 2018, 812 were aged 18 or under while the number of under-16s admitted rose 72 per cent from 95 in 2013 to 163 this year, according to figures analysed by the Daily Mail.

Data compiled by Britain’s public healthcare body showed the total number of people from all age groups hospitalised for stab injuries in the last year, which was 5,053, marked a rise of 14 per cent from the same period last year and 40 per cent from figures for the year ending September, when 3,643 people were treated.

The Telegraph reported that more than 50 patients treated in 2017/18 were aged between 10 and 14 years old while four were under the age of nine.

But the NHS figures show only the tip of the iceberg regarding England’s knife crime epidemic, reports suggested earlier this month, when a senior police officer highlighted data which showed there were 69,000 child woundings — defined as a stabbing or other violent incident resulting in a severe injury to a child aged between ten and 15 years old — in the year to June.

Teenagers ‘Too Afraid to Go out’ in Sadiq Khan’s London as Gun, Knife Violence Soars https://t.co/xkU7fqE1Zd — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 24, 2018

Assistant chief constable Jacqueline Sebire of Bedfordshire Police warned the surge in violence seen in recent years felt “completely different” from disorder she had witnessed in earlier periods during her 20-year policing career.

“This level of violence, this constant torrent of every single day another stabbing, another violent incident that we can’t seem to get ahead of … There are children as young as 12 involved in stabbings.

“We have nine and 10-year-olds carrying knives,” she told the National Police Chiefs’ Council.

Breitbart London previously reported how, earlier this year, pupils were taught about the dangers of blade violence in hour-long classes at school before the start of the summer holidays.

With youth violence having surged 70 per cent from the previous year in London under its mayor, Sadiq Khan, 50,000 schools across the country were sent lesson plans by the Home Office aimed at “empower[ing children] to live knife-free”.

A study published earlier this month revealed under-18s in the capital were most likely to be stabbed as they left school, with figures showing a “significant peak” in youth knife attacks taking place in the two-hour window between 4 and 6 pm.