A “concerning” increase in knife crime in Greenwich has been blamed on police cuts.

The council has called for extra funding for the Met after an upward trend in violence across the capital.

Last week council leader Dan Thorpe listed knife crime as a top priority for his administration just an hour after a vicious double stabbing that left one man fighting for his life.

This comes as a report into crime in the borough, set to be heard on Thursday, has painted a concerning picture for councillors.

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This is the trend in offence weapon charges in Greenwich (Met)

Knife crime in Greenwich has escalated quicker than the rest of capital, with offences jumping  27 per cent compared to 22 per cent for London on average.

In the last year, there have been 394 knife crime offences in the borough, totting up 84 per cent of all weapon crimes.

There have been four reported stabbings in Greenwich in September alone.

Cllr Jackie Smith, the cabinet member for community safety, said: “We are hugely concerned with the upward trend in knife crime in the Royal Borough.

“This is why our joint work with the Met Police on our borough wide Knife Action Plan is our top priority.

“This has included a recent action day in which 20 people were arrested and seven hidden knives were seized by the police in Woolwich town centre.

“We are also encouraging businesses to sign up to the Royal Borough of Greenwich Knife Charter to stop knives falling into the hands of young people which could potentially prevent them being used on streets.”

The council established a Knife Crime and Serious Youth Violence Task Force earlier this year aiming to prevent violence at an early stage.

Despite the upward trend, Cllr Smith pointed out that between June and August knife-crime was “stabilising”, with a 47 per cent decrease compared to a 10 per cent drop in London.

The council has now blamed the increase in violence on government cuts.

Cllr Smith said: “The council firmly believes that the recent crippling cuts to police officers across the capital is a major contributing factor to the rise in knife crime.

“We have been flagging up that since 2010 the Royal Borough has lost 168 police officers and 117 Police Community Support Officers due to a £600m cut to the Metropolitan Police’s budget.

“We are calling on the government to urgently give our police officers the funding they need to reverse this devastating rise in knife crime.”

Since September 2009  there has been a cut of 22,424 police officers. in England and Wales.

London’s ongoing violence led to City Hall announcing a new approach to treat violence as public health issue, similar to that successfully undertaken in Glasgow.

The Violence Reduction Unit will be set up with an initial £500,000 fund and will include staff from health, police and local government agencies.

Leader Dan Thorpe added: “We fully welcome the announcement by the Mayor of London to set up a specialist unit to tackle this awful rise in violent crime, particularly amongst our young people. Something has to change in order to stem this dreadful and deadly issue.”