Charity asks for support to educate Luton children about ‘knife crime crisis’

A model poses holding a knife (Photo: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)

This comes after a boy was stabbed to death in the town

A charity is asking for urgent support to educate young people about knife crime after a spate of stabbings in Luton.

The Safety Centre is a charity which puts on workshops for primary and secondary school students to teach them about safe choices when it comes to carrying and using weapons.

The charity’s CEO Maya Joseph-Hussain said: “There must be an end to the knife crime crisis we are facing across the country. The senseless violence we’re seeing here in Luton and across the country is destroying lives and corrupting trust across our communities.

In the last two weeks there have been four separate knife attacks in Luton. A teenager, named by family and friends as Ashraf Habimana, was pronounced dead after he was taken to hospital on Friday (September 29). Three teens have been arrested following the attack, which left two further victims injured.

The news of this latest fatal stabbing came just three hours after reports that two teenagers were stabbed in Sundon Park Road. One suffered life-threatening injuries, while a second had serious but not life-threatening injuries. Another person was injured during an attack in the Chapel Street underpass on Monday, September 25.

Just two weeks earlier there was another fatal stabbing in the town when Omar Khan, 38, from Leicester Road in Luton, was killed near Sundon Park's Tesco Express on September 16. A 16-year-old boy was arrested in connection with this incident, which also left a woman in hospital.

Maya added: "We are urgently calling on businesses and individuals to support our knife crime education workshops for children aged nine upwards. These sessions are essential to give our young people the tools they need to make safe choices when it comes to carrying a weapon. We must get this message out to our young people to save lives.”

Individuals and businesses can support the charity’s knife crime education sessions by clicking this link. Over 14,500 students have already attended one of the centre’s sessions.