Knife detectors for city revellers

Police in Plymouth are to install knife arches in certain key locations in the city in a bid to deter clubbers and revellers from carrying knives.

The arches, which will be introduced from tonight (Friday 19 April), work in a similar way to airport metal detectors and are fully portable and easy to assemble.

The initiative follows last weekend's stabbing of a 23-year-old man in the Mutley Plain area and the arrest and charging of three men for attempted murder. The man was attacked while getting into a taxi and remains in Derriford Hospital with serious injuries, though is thought to be in a stable condition.

However, police stress that they are not responding to a specific incident or knife problem.

Two knife arches will be set up on pavements and police patrols will be increased. Police will also carry hand held metal detectors.

Similar trials in Plymouth and elsewhere have proved controversial in the past, with critics suggesting police were infringing civil liberties.

The police say they are keen that people feel safer as a result of the initiative as well as reminding those on a night out that it is an offence to carry a knife.