Boy, 13, is latest victim of Glasgow stabbings

Published on Sunday 1 July 2007 00:51

A 13-YEAR-OLD boy was seriously ill in hospital last night after being stabbed after he became separated from friends.

Police are treating the incident - the latest in a series of stabbings in Glasgow - as attempted murder, officers said.

The teenager was assaulted just after 10.30pm on Friday. His friends found him collapsed in Carntyne Path in the Shettleston area of the city.

The boy had suffered serious stab wounds, and was taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary where his condition was described as serious but stable.

Detective Constable Adam Mitchell of Shettleston CID appealed for any witnesses to come forward and said that the police had very little information about the circumstances of the boy's injuries.

He said: "He had been with friends earlier in the evening and became separated from them. His friends found him a while later on Carntyne Path. It is unknown if he came about his injuries on Carntyne Path or was assaulted elsewhere and collapsed following the attack.

"I am keen to speak to anyone who saw or heard anything last night which may assist my inquiries."

In another incident, a 15-year-old boy was stabbed in the Shettleston area in the early hours of yesterday morning.

He was set upon by a group of males at about 2.40am after taking his dog out into the back court area of Powfoot Street. An ambulance took him to Glasgow Royal Infirmary, where his condition was also described as serious but stable.

Police are asking anyone with information about either of the incidents to contact them. Earlier this year, Detective Chief Superintendent John Carnochan, head of Strathclyde Police's violence reduction unit, warned it would take "a generation" to significantly reduce Scotland's knife problem.

Carnochan said that the only way of ending the knife-carrying culture was to make major investment in nursery education and give parents more support to ensure young children are taught to avoid violence.

In May and June last year, the Safer Scotland anti-violence campaign gathered 13,000 weapons from its knife amnesty. The cache included lock knives, machetes, swords, meat cleavers, bayonets and axes. There were 7,403 domestic knives, 2,982 non-domestic knives and 474 swords.

In the first half of the year, police recorded 1,910 offences of carrying a knife or other bladed weapon. But in the six months following the amnesty, the number of offences increased to 1,984.

Last week, it emerged that police had charged a 10-year-old boy with bringing a knife into his primary school.

Officers were called to the school in Dundee after other pupils told teachers that the youngster was carrying a blade.

A Tayside Police spokeswoman said the boy had been charged with possessing a weapon. A report was sent to the Procurator Fiscal, who will decide if he is reported to the Children's Panel.

The spokeswoman added that the force was continuing to investigate claims that children at the school were threatened with a knife.