Stabbing injuries increased in Bolton over last year with a total of more than 150 people injured by knives, new figures reveal.

The figures, obtained by The Bolton News under the Freedom of Information Act, show that over the course of 2021 ambulances were called out to deal with knife-related injuries a total of 159 times.

This was up from 120 knife incidents in 2020, while figures going up to February 2022 show that ambulances have already been called out to deal with at least 21 injuries so far.

Councillor Nick Peel, who has previously called for more to be done to tackle violence in the borough, said: “Knife crime is on the increase, it’s a serious problem across the UK and a serious problem in Bolton.

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“Now that we’ve got new management at GMP level I’d hope that the new chief constable will help us to tackle this problem on the ground.”

He added: “The cuts in policing that’s led to a loss of officer numbers has obviously had an effect and we need to reverse that if we’re going to address the problem of knife crime."

Some of the ambulance call-outs have included cases where the victim was injured by central stab wounds, multiple stab wounds, and stabbings in which multiple patients were affected.

They also included cases in which the stab wounds were self-inflicted.

The Bolton News:

The findings were obtained from the North West Ambulance Service

The figures show that the most stabbing cases occurred in the town centre BL1 postcode, with 53 incidents last year and six found so far this year.

The fewest were found in the BL7 area with none this year or last and only one since 2020.

Some of the most high-profile incidents have included the murder of schoolboy Reece Tansey on Walker Avenue, Great Lever and the fatal stabbing of 25-year-old Tyrone Williamson on Battenburg Road in separate cases last year.

Cllr Peel said: “People might say they have a variety of reasons for carrying knives but at the end of the day they’re going out with equipment that’s used for stabbing someone, so it’s clearly premeditated.”

He added: “So there is no defence.”