LONDON - BRITAIN on Thursday published its first detailed figures on the extent of knife crime, which has been causing mounting concern here because of the number of teenagers killed by weapons this year.

Police in England and Wales recorded 22,151 offences involving knives last year, the Home Office said. The highest number - 7,409 - was in London, where 20 teenagers have died violently since the start of the year.

The densely-populated urban areas around Birmingham, west central England, and the northwestern city of Manchester had the next highest figures, but many, predominantly rural police forces also had to tackle the problem.

Hundreds of knife crimes were recorded in Devon and Cornwall, southwest England, the Northumbria Police area in northeast England, and force areas around London.

Later on Thursday evening, a male believed to be a teenager was stabbed to death in south London, police said.

Officers were called to the scene at around 7.05 pm (2.05 am Singapore time, Friday), where they 'discovered a male, believed to be in his late teens ... He was taken, in a life-threatening condition, to a south London hospital, where he was pronounced dead,' a spokesman for London's Metropolitan Police said.

Police have not released any details of the man's identity.

Serious violent crimes involving a blade have previously been recorded with other attacks, but police began recording them separately from April last year because of mounting public fears about the problem.

Teenage deaths have been given prominent media coverage in recent months, as has the number of youngsters carrying weapons either out of bravado or for protection, forcing the government to address the issue and allay fears.

The Home Office, which has mooted nighttime curfews and the possibility of offenders meeting the families of stab victims, said that despite the knife crime figures, overall crime as recorded by police was down nine per cent.

The separate British Crime Survey, which questions people's perceptions and experiences of crime and is seen as a more accurate measure as it includes unreported crime, suggested a 10 per cent fall overall.

The National Health Service Information Centre said there has been a 32 per cent rise in the number of patients being treated for stab wounds or similar injuries in England between 1998-99 and 2006-07.

Figures for Scotland and Northern Ireland were not immediately available. -- AFP