Disbelief at 'sad state of affairs' as police in London now being brought into schools to teach 13-year-olds how treat stab and gunshot wounds

Children aged 13 are being taught how to treat stab and gunshot wounds by police officers in school.

The extraordinary class has been taught to year nine pupils in at least one inner city London academy by City of London Police officers.

It coincides with a rise in violent crime in the capital which has seen young people targeted by gangs, the most recent happening on Easter Monday.

Conservative mayoral candidate Susan Hall slammed the lessons as the 'sad reality of Sadiq Khan's London where knife crime is up 54 per cent' as Londoners hit out at the 'sad state of affairs'.

During the class at the City of London Academy secondary school in Southwark yesterday, officers taught pupils the sadly necessary skills which could save the life of someone who has been stabbed or shot.

The City of London Police said the children were taught how to 'provide emergency treatment to someone suffering from a stab wound or ballistic injury' and how to stop bleeding in those situations.

The presentation that officers gave to pupils included a slide on 'Exposure and Evacuation'. The slide showed a picture Jack Nicholson as horror villain Jack Torrance from 1980 Kubrick film The Shining after he had frozen to death after being left in the cold all night.

Susan Hall told MailOnline: 'We shouldn't have to teach 13 and 14 year olds how to treat stab wounds, but that is the sad reality of Sadiq Khan's London where knife crime is up 54%.

'I am listening to Londoners, which is why I will put knife arches in every school that wants one and provide all frontline officers with knife detection wands, so we can get knives off our streets.'

The City of London Police told residents: 'Our officers have been teaching year 9 students at the City of London Academy how to treat stab wounds and stop a bleed.

'The students were shown potentially lifesaving skills and how to provide emergency treatment to someone suffering from a stab wound or ballistic injury.'

A 21-year-old man was shot dead in west London on Easter Monday, sparking a police hunt for the gunman. Police and ambulance crews were called to Comeragh Road in leafy West Kensington, where houses sell for close to £1million, just after 10pm.

A man was found with gunshots wounds and treated by paramedics but died at the scene.

Social media users expressed horror at the state of affairs which has led children to have to learn these lifesaving skills due to an uptick in knife crime in London.

User Ben replied: 'It's a sad state of affairs when plod have to teach children how to treat knife and gunshot wounds.'

Another commenter, Mart, said it was 'frightening' that police had the teach the children these skills.

A third said: 'Disgusting that you need to do this. Tell Khan to sort out this problem.'

Police statistics revealed in January that more than 1,000 homicides had taken place in London since Sadiq Khan was elected mayor in 2016.

Croydon was the borough with the highest homicide rate under Mr Khan's leadership with a total of 55 killings, amounting to just over 5 per cent of the total number of homicides in the capital.

Alongside the south London borough - the areas of Southwark, Brent, Greenwich and Newham were the locations for 25 per cent of all homicides in the last seven years, each contributing above 5 per cent of the total.

And this this year, the number of teenagers killed also remains high - with 21 youngsters killed in 2023, up from 14 in 2022. A further 30 were killed in 2021.