Brit kids as young as eight carrying weapons to school

Apart from carrying books and stationary, British children, as young as 8 years, use their school-bags as an all purpose kit for school-brawls, equipped with guns, knives and axes, reveals a new report.

London, May 19 : Apart from carrying books and stationary, British children, as young as 8 years, use their school-bags as an all purpose kit for school-brawls, equipped with guns, knives and axes, reveals a new report.

It may shock many, but according to the findings of the report, youngsters arm themselves for the journey to and from school, anticipating attacks by other youngsters.

In fact, the police have confiscated over 900 potentially lethal weapons from children on school grounds. And the weapons range from hunting knives, axes, meat hooks, claw hammers, and knuckledusters to even guns for that matter.

"For a minority of schools, things are getting tougher," the Mirror quoted Christine Blower of the National Union of Teachers, as saying.

The statistics, horrible as it may seem, were released under the Freedom of Information Act and show that between 2005 and 2007, police officers seized 934 weapons from pupils at schools throughout Britain.

While knives seemed to be the most popular weapons for defence, surprisingly the officers also got hold of a few 9mm revolvers and stun guns.

The worrying figures were followed by a survey revealing that one third of young people think it is acceptable to carry a knife in self-defence.

The youngsters said that they don not have any faith in politicians, the police and their schools and thus they feel the need to be armed at all times. Nearly fifty percent said they knew of someone who had been stabbed from a knife.

This survey, carried out by Tuned In, a market research company specialising in youth issues, focussed on 355 people aged 16 to 24 in London, Manchester and Bristol.

ANI