A gifted private schoolboy who dreamed of being a heart surgeon has become the latest victim of the UK’s knife crime epidemic.

Yousef Makki, 17, from Burnage, Manchester, died just hours after Jodie Chesney, also 17, was stabbed to death in an "unprovoked attack" in her local park on the outskirts of London.

The scale of the crisis prompted Sajid Javid, the home secretary, to call a meeting with police chiefs this week as he warned such “senseless” violence could not go on.

A new analysis of NHS data suggests there has been a 93 per cent rise in the number of children being treated for wounds caused by knives or other sharp objects in the last five years.

Yousef’s stunned family yesterday joined the growing number forced to mourn the sudden loss of a much-loved child.

The bright A* student was found slumped against a tree on Gorse Bank Road in the affluent Manchester suburb of Hale Barns, near Altrincham. The street is lined with sprawling detached homes worth upwards of £800,000.