KNIFE crime is a 'relatively limited' problem in Bolton, according to the borough's top police officer.

High profile assaults and deaths involving knives across the country have put the issue at the top of the agenda for many forces but Superintendent Rick Jackson says that is not the case in his jurisdiction.

Speaking at the town hall in a special scrutiny meeting last week, Supt Jackson was confronted with questions from Cllr Bilkis Ismail, who asked what was being done about blades after incidents in her ward of Crompton.

In response, he said: "Crompton is one of our high-demand areas. The way knife crime is recorded now, it goes beyond knives, it includes sharp objects and it’s driven primarily by the night time economy in the main.

"The level of knife crime is relatively limited. It certainly is nothing in the order of what we’re seeing reported nationally.

"Whilst we do feature in the top 10 of Manchester, I’m pretty certain that the nine other areas that come before us are all city of Manchester.”

Last month a man was stabbed four times in the street outside his home in Horwich. Police said the 40-year-old had spotted a group of people around his car but when he went to confront them he was attacked.

In June, a man was rushed to hospital after being stabbed in an incident in Patterson Street, Deane.

Across the rest of Greater Manchester there have been a number of recent stabbings.

This includes a shocking incident on Friday, October 11, which saw four people taken to hospital after being injured by a knifeman at the Arndale Shopping Centre in Manchester.