Knife-carrying youngsters will be forced to face victims of stabbings under new Government measures announced today.

Hours after two men were killed and a music festival-goer seriously injured in the latest wave of knife crime, the Home Secretary has rejected calls for offenders to be given custodial sentences and instead suggested they visit hospitals to be confronted by people injured in attacks.

The measures, announced by Jacqui Smith, come as public concern mounts over a rising tide of violence on Britain's streets. Five people were killed within 24 hours at the end of last week, four of them in London, while the latest fatalities occured in Bristol and Bolton, one in a residential street and the other in a public house.

In Bristol, police launched a murder investigation after a man believed to be in his forties suffered knife wounds to the head and chest in the Withywood area of the city. He was rushed to Frenchay Hospital in a critical condition and died this morning.

Times Archive, 1956: Judge on race gang warfare

Summing up, his Lordship said this case sounded more like Chicago in the worst days of Prohibition than London in 1956

• No 'jungle in schoolroom'

• Call for banning 'flick' knives

Related Links

• Commentary: Real solution or just more political floundering?

• We demand curfews to curb violence, say public

• Knife victim wanted to be a detective

Multimedia

• YouGov poll results in full

• Victims of the London stabbings

In Bolton, a man was found injured at the Pepper Alley pub in Crown Street at around 12.50 this morning. He was taken to the Royal Bolton Hospital with two stab wounds but was unable to survive. A 19-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

And at the T in the Park festival in Perthshire, a 22-year-old man was found by police with multiple stab wounds in the “yellow zone” of the Scottish festival’s campsite at around 12.40am.

He was treated by medics on the scene and taken by ambulance to Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital, where he was said to be in a serious but stable condition. The victim’s parents have been informed and police are looking for two men in connection with the attack.

Mrs Smith's new shock tactics include visits to A&E wards where people are being treated for knife wounds, meetings with the families of stabbing victims, and prison visits to offenders jailed for knife offences.

The measures are part of the Government’s initial response to last week’s horrific spate of knife attacks. However the Home Secretary rejected Conservative demands that anyone caught carrying a knife should expect to go to prison.

“It is simplistic and wrong to pretend that prison is an easy answer to all of society’s problems,” she said.

“The police, as well as judges and community leaders don’t want every single young person found carrying a knife jailed, especially when we know that tough community sentences including community payback, supervision and electronically monitored curfews are more likely to stop them carrying knives in the future.”

Mrs Smith disclosed that she had written to all 43 chief constables in England and Wales, reminding them of their powers to require pubs or clubs associated with knife or gun problems to search customers on entry.

Orders have been issued to licensing authorities to crackdown heavily on premises that allow underage drinking, and trading standards officers have been told to make test purchases as a matter of priority to ensure shops are not selling knives to underage youngsters.

The measures will be focused particularly on eight “hotspot” police areas - London, West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire, Essex and Thames Valley. Mrs Smith said that she would be working with Justice Secretary Jack Straw to see what could be done to highlight offences handed down for for knife offences in those areas.

At the same time, Health Secretary Alan Johnson is urging strategic health authorities to look at ways that hospitals and other NHS organisations can work with police, including reporting knife-related incidents, without compromising patient confidentiality.

“I am absolutely shocked at the tragic and senseless loss of life we have seen recently. I want to reassure everyone that the Government is taking the issue of knife crime very seriously,” Mrs Smith said.

“I am particularly concerned about the young age of offenders and victims - that is why today I am again emphasising what action we have taken and what new action we are demanding.”

Today’s announcement comes ahead of the publication on Tuesday of the Government’s £100 million crime action plan to be launched by Mrs Smith, Mr Straw and Children’s Secretary Ed Balls. It will include new enforcement and early prevention measures as well as “tough parenting programmes” and youth activities targeted on areas with the worst problems.

Times Recommends

• Oh no, Mr Darling: you have failed
• BBC survives dogfight over Kennel Club expose
• Where the Rosetta belongs can’t be set in stone