Knife crime used to be considered a 'London problem'. Not anymore.
Over the course of just 24-hours, barely six miles apart on the May Bank Holiday this year, for instance - there were three stabbings. One of which was fatal.
Blackley, Gorton and Beswick were hit with the spiralling knife crime epidemic in an horrific Bank Holiday bloodbath.
Police say they are now dealing with an astonishing average of ten knife crimes a day.
Data has also revealed that Manchester has had one of the most acute increases in stabbings over the course of the last year.
Around 125 people from the city were admitted to hospital with stab wounds in 2018/19 - up more than a quarter from 95 cases the year before.
The figures show a huge increase Manchester stabbings since 2014/15 when there were 50 cases.
There were also more victims recorded in Bury, Trafford, and Wigan last year than the year before.
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The figures were published by NHS Digital - who round the numbers to the nearest five to protect the anonymity of victims.
The NHS recorded around 330 cases of people being stabbed across the Greater Manchester police area last year.
That’s up from the 300 recorded in 2017/18, and is a 16% rise since 2012/13 when there were 285 hospital admissions.
Of the victims, 295 were male, while 35 were female. Around two thirds (215) were of white ethnicity.
There were around 25 victims of Asian or Asian British ethnicity, 20 of black or black British ethnicity, and 10 of mixed ethnicity.
A "task force" is being set up to tackle violent crime in the region, including the use of knives.
GMP is seconding detectives and uniformed officers from divisions throughout the region to the team.
It is also hoped that an additional 50 officers will be recruited - some for use in the initative.
The move comes after the force received funding from the Home Office of £4m to tackle serious violence, particularly involving knives, and other weapons, focused on young people.
Nationally 5,024 people were admitted to hospital after being attacked with a knife or other sharp object last year.
That’s up slightly from the 4,986 in 2017/18, and up almost a third since 2012/13.
The rise was steepest amongst teens, who accounted for 1,012 admissions last year, up around 55% from 656 six years ago.
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Some 4,632 victims were male, compared with 389 females.
Some 2,551 victims were white, while 463 were black or black British and 345 were of asian or Asian British origin.
There were 158 victims of mixed ethnicity while 1,507 were unknown or of a different ethnic group.
The figures come after the NHS has appointed its first clinical director for violence reduction to help prevent stabbings and other violent crime.
Martin Griffiths was appointed on June 19th, and his job involves identifying the root causes of violence and delivering early interventions to help prevent its spread.
He said: “Every day I see the wasted opportunities of young people stuck on hospital wards with life-changing injuries.
“We do everything we can for these patients but don’t just want to patch them up and send them back out to be injured again.
“And by working together across the NHS there is more we can do to prevent these attacks happening in the first place.
“I want to build a network that will empower communities across London to challenge the attitudes and behaviours that result in violence.”
Special police 'task force' being set up to tackle knife crime in Greater Manchester.
A GMP spokesperson said: “We are actively engaging with our communities to increase their knowledge of and educate them about the harm that carrying a knife can cause to both themselves and others.
"We are one of 18 police forces across the UK which have recently received additional funding from the Home Office to help us tackle the serious violence that is happening across the whole country.
“In spite of the large number of incidents involving knives which has been reported in the media, our data shows that there is a year-on-year reduction in the number of crimes involving knives in Greater Manchester.
“When comparing the same six-month timescale in 2019 to 2018, there has been a significant reduction in these types of crimes, which indicates that the work we are currently undertaking is having a positive impact.
"In addition to the extra operational policing activity we will be working alongside our partners, including local authorities, education and health, and are in the development of a Violence Reduction Unit as we aim to deliver a sustainable approach to reducing serious violence in Greater Manchester."