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A surgeon in London has likened his hospital to a war zone and says he is regularly treating children in school uniform for knife wounds.

Martin Griffiths, a lead surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust, said military colleagues have described their work as being similar to Camp Bastion, the British Forces base in Afghanistan.

The experienced surgeon said children aged as young as 13 are being admitted to his hospital with knife and gun wounds on a daily basis.

He made his comments after the number of homicides being investigated in the capital this year rose to at least 55 after a young man was stabbed to death in Hackney last night.

Speaking about the shocking spate of attacks, Mr Griffiths told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he has seen a "significant increase" in the number of wounds each victim receives as well as the severity.

(Image: PA) (Image: Channel 4) (Image: PA)

He also said the age of the victims - and their apparent assailants - was dropping.

"About a quarter of what we see in our practice is knife and gun injury and now we are doing major life saving cases on a daily basis," he said.

"Some of my military colleagues have described the practice here as similar to being at Bastion which is a very worrying comment to hear."

He said the age of people he is required to do "major interventions" on is falling.

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"We routinely have children under our care - 13, 14 15 year olds are daily occurrences.

"We used to look after people in their 20s now we look after people in their mid to late teens and children, children in school uniforms are being admitted under our care with knife and gun wounds."

He said that while he believes some of his patients are suspected of having gang involvement others just have "poor impulse control".

He added: "People's attitudes towards violence are changing. Where as young people are being stabbed five, six years ago was a horror story now its normal and people expect to hear about people being killed on a daily basis.

"You get the society you deserve if you ignore violence and ignore offending as a member of the public."

(Image: PA) (Image: Channel 4)

He made his comments on the same programme as Tottenham MP David Lammy who claimed buying cocaine is as easy as ordering a pizza off Deliveroo.

He said: "I’ve had four deaths (in my constituency).

"I’ve not had a phone call from the Home Secretary (Tory Amber Rudd), I’ve not had a phone call from the mayor (Labour's Sadiq Khan). No one has come to visit my constituency.

"Frankly I'm sick of the political football. What I want is a political consensus."

Mr Lammy added: "What drives the gangs and the turf wars is an £11billion cocaine drugs market.

"I think the police and our country has lost control of that drugs market."