The King and Queen met with charities on their first stop of a historic visit to Teesside today (January 13).
Charles and Camilla met a collection of charities and organisations from those supporting young people to a group from the King’s Trust supporting an initiative to tackle violence involving blades.
During the 12 months to October 2024, a knife was involved in the killing of six people in Teesside, Cleveland Police stated on its website, and during the same period, there were 503 reports of violence with injury involving a blade.
The King and Queen were welcomed to a community hub called the International Centre, the venue for the visit, by performers from North East Opera who sang Welcome, a song performed in multiple languages.
It is an issue that The Northern Echo has campaigned on extensively in recent years through the Knife Crime Taskforce. The taskforce has met regularly and pushed governments of all colours to act to reduce the number of knife deaths.
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Reacting to recent figures on knife crime, Assistant Chief Constable Richard Baker of Cleveland Police told The Northern Echo:
“We acknowledge we all still have a long way to go, and policing is only a small part of the whole response to knife crime.
“We will continue with everything we are currently doing to drive down the numbers of young people carrying knives.”