London’s Air Ambulance had to attend more stabbings and shootings than road traffic accidents for the first time in its almost 30-year history in 2017.

Newly released figures reveal that airborne trauma specialists and paramedics treated some 560 shooting and stabbing victims over the course of the year, compared to 533 cyclists, drivers, passengers, and pedestrians who had been involved in road traffic accidents, the Evening Standard reports.

Dr. Gareth Grier, the Air Ambulance service’s lead clinician, said it is now “not unusual now for our teams to perform open-chest surgery for stab wounds twice in a single day,” adding: “This would have been unheard of a few years back.”

He tried to offer the public some reassurance by telling them his team’s “world-leading treatments mean that we can give these [stabbing and shooting victims] and other patients we treat the best possible chance of survival.”

Meanwhile, apologists for city Mayor Sadiq Khan, who has overseen a massive rise in crime and terror attacks since he took office in 2016, have tried to downplay the news, noting that the number of collisions attended by Air Ambulance crews declined compared to 2016 — but this does not disguise the fact that the number of shootings and stabbings attended increased by 60.

Today we have released our mission stats for 2017. Our medics treated 1797 critically injured patients across London last year. To donate to our charity and help us to deliver our service 24/7 visit https://t.co/2Z6YW20Yx8 pic.twitter.com/iYi3mUqJ4S — London's Air Ambulance (@LDNairamb) March 15, 2018

Dr. Grier’s revelations concerning the Air Ambulance echo similar revelations by Dr. Martin Griffiths, a top vascular and trauma surgeon at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, about the number of gunshot victims being treated in modern London.

“Our numbers of victims of gun injury have doubled [since 2012],” he revealed.

“Year on year, we have seen a 20 to 30 per cent rise in the past two or three years. We will admit 50 to 60 patients this year with gunshot injuries.”

Gun crime increased by 16.3 per cent from 2015/16 to 2016/17, and by an incredible 42 per cent from 2015/16 to 2016/17– despite draconian restrictions on the right of law-abiding citizens to personal firearms in Britain.

This all forms part of a wider picture thrown into sharp relief by crime data released by Sadiq Khan’s office recently, which showed homicides in London up by 27.1 per cent and youth homicide up by an astonishing 70 per cent.

Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter: @JackBMontgomery