Laws for carrying knife in public as one other little one stabbed in broad daylight
The UK has been rocked by a pair of brutal incidents that saw young children stabbed in public.
On July 29, a mass stabbing claimed the lives of three young girls in Southport as they attended a Taylor Swift-themed dance class. Axel Rudakubana has been accused of carrying out the attack that claimed the lives of six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancomben and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar.
Then, two weeks later, Leicester Square was the scene of yet another child stabbing. One man, 32, has been arrested after allegedly attacking an 11-year-old girl with a bladed article.
Read more – Leicester Square tea shop hero named after tackling knifeman as girl and woman stabbed
Ioan Pintaru, of no fixed address, has been charged with attempted murder following this seemingly unrelated incident. But, as these horrific child attacks mount up – what are the laws on carrying such a bladed article in public?
(Image: Getty Images)
The weapon in the Southport attack has been described as a “kitchen knife”.
Meanwhile, at the Leicester Square attack, heroic shop security guard Abdullah who jumped in to defend the victim said: “I jumped on him, held the hand in which he was (carrying) a knife, and just put him down on the floor and just held him and took the knife away from him.”
UK laws on carrying a knife in public
(Image: PA)
The government makes it clear that it is illegal to carry “most knives or any weapons in public without a ‘good reason’”.
The two main exceptions that fall outside of this band are folding pocket knives with a blade that is shorter than three inches and doesn’t have a locking mechanism.
(Image: Getty Images)
If you were to be charged with carrying a knife illegally, ‘good reasons’ for carrying such an item would, according to the government, include it being “for your work. For religious reasons, such as the kirpan some Sikhs carry, [or] as part of any national costume”.
