Official knife crime figures underline public concerns » Central government » 24dash.com

Public concern about knife crime has spiralled in the wake of a spate of murders, many involving teenagers.

And official figures support the public fear - acknowledged by Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week - that the risk has grown.

Hospital figures show a 32% rise in the number of patients being treated for stab wounds or similar injuries between 1998/99 and 2006/07.

Hospital Episode Statistics provided by the NHS Information Centre detail the number of patients being treated for "contact with knife, sword or dagger" in England.

In 1998/99, 4,049 people were treated for such injuries compared with 5,342 patients in 2006/7 - a rise of 32%.

The disturbing roll call of recent stab deaths includes:

• July 7 - Schoolboy David Idowu, 14, dies almost three weeks after being stabbed in an attack in Great Dover Street, Southwark, London.
• July 7 - Dylan Fox, 21, is stabbed to death in Durrants Road, Bethnal Green, east London.
• July 8 - 43-year-old man, fatally stabbed at a house in Hazel Grove, Crewe.
• July 9 - 25-year-old Mark Beard stabbed to death outside a house in Caldon Green, Bulwell, Nottingham.
• July 10 - 45-year-old Joanne De Asha found stabbed to death in a home in Crosby, Liverpool.
• July 10 - 41-year-old Latvian Gennar Jaronis found dead after suffering from head injuries and slash wounds at the rear of a disused pub in Tottenham High Road, London.
• July 10 - 18-year-old Melvin Bryan is fatally stabbed in an attack at a bedsit in Gloucester Road, Edmonton, north London.
• July 10 - Adnan Patel, 20, is fatally injured in Downsell Road, Leyton, east London. The young Asian had been stabbed in a confrontation with a gang of men and crashed his black Ford Focus as he tried to escape.
• July 10 - Yusufu Miiro, 20, dies after he is stabbed in the head and chest in St David's Court, Walthamstow, north-east London.
• July 11 - 20-year-old Thomas Coombs Duffield dies after a stabbing in West Bromwich, following a row in the street on the evening of July 10.
• July 13 - Father-of-two, named locally as Johnny Derrick, 43, dies after being stabbed following a row in Withywood, Bristol, on the evening of July 12.
• July 13 - 31-year-old Paul Gilligan fatally stabbed following an attack outside a pub in Bolton, Greater Manchester.