70% of Stab Victims at London Hospital are Aged Between 13 and 19

It is London, though, that has gained the unenviable reputation as the place where young people are most likely to be stabbed. Already this year 25 teenagers have met violent deaths, most of them as a result of knives. The accident and emergency department at King's College Hospital in south-east London treats more victims of stabbings than any other in England - almost one every day.

At King's an astonishing 70 per cent of knife victims are aged between 13 and 19. While the number of such patients is going up, their age is going down. The youngest knife crime victim treated last year was a 10-year-old schoolboy. Last month the stabbing casualty list included a 14-year-old girl.

Until recently A&E staff saw few females with blade wounds. But last year more than 10 per cent of patients at King's with such wounds were teenage girls or young women.

Throughout last week King's gave The Observer unprecedented access to its A&E unit to witness how medical staff cope with the growing toll of knife crime. The stark reality of their work on the front line - dealing with the growing number of disputes settled with blades - raises many unsettling questions.