Knives seized from children in Wyre as gangs of youngsters use internet to set up fights

Fleetwood police released the picture in an effort to encourage parents to speak to their children about the dangers of knife crime.

The blades were seized from children in Thornton, Cleveleys and Fleetwood amid reports of youngsters arranging fights with other children using social media.

A police spokesman said: "These are some of the weapons that we have‎ seized from children in Fleetwood and Thornton-Cleveleys in the last week, in light of the recent large scale organised fights. We've had a number of reports of children as young as 11-years-old carrying weapons and arranging fights with other groups of children in the Wyre area.

"Please be assured that we are doing everything we can - we have increased patrols in key areas, we are visiting schools to warn of the dangers and we are also speaking to the families of those children involved.

"We know this is only a small minority of the children in the towns‎ but if you have a child between the ages of 11 and 16 we would urge you to speak to them about the dangers and consequences of carrying weapons."

People can find out about knife crime on the police's Trust Ed website, which can be found at www.trusted2know.co.uk/gangs-and-knives.If you know of anyone carrying weapons you can report it on the Lancashire constabulary website, call 101, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.