Child, 10, among 91 under-18s caught with a knife in Scotland
It sparked fears that a 'youth violence epidemic' is sweeping the country
TEN & TOOLED UP Child, 10, among 91 under-18s caught with a knife in Scotland
A CHILD aged just ten was among 91 under-18s caught with a knife in Scotland last year.
The shocking stats come in the wake of the alleged stab deaths of Amen Teklay and Kayden Moy, both 16, in Glasgow and Irvine, Ayrshire, this year.
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Mr Threadgold, of the SPF, said these stats show a "concerning" societal trend emerging in Scotland's youth
Credit: Alan MacGregor Ewing
And they have sparked fears that a 'youth violence epidemic' is sweeping the country.
Police stop and search data, published by justice and social affairs magazine 1919, shows the ten-year-old was nabbed in Edinburgh.
Other cases include 12-year-olds caught carrying blades in the capital, Glasgow, Ayrshire and Lanarkshire.
And more than a dozen kids aged 13 — including two girls — also had such weapons.
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David Threadgold, chairman of the Scottish Police Federation, said: 'Each one of the truly shocking statistics shows an increasingly concerning societal trend we now see emerging among young people.'
Police Scotland Assistant Chief Constable Mark Sutherland said: 'People expect us to use all powers to keep them safe.
'Stop and search is just one — and one in every three searches leads to the recovery of illicit or harmful items, safeguarding our communities.'
We told previously how a schoolboy was threatened with knives in a playpark by two classmates aged just nine and ten.
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Cops were called after one of the P5 kids brandished a lockback blade at the ten-year-old, leaving him petrified.
Elsewhere, a boy of seven took a blade into a school to attack a classmate.
Police swarm Scots street amid disturbance after two men spotted armed with knives
The P3 pupil is said to have brandished a kitchen knife at Heathfield Primary in Ayr.
Furious parents hit out at school bosses as cops confirmed they are investigating a 'report of a child in possession of a knife'.
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