THE NUMBER of people caught with guns and knives in Blackburn with Darwen has almost doubled, according to the latest police recorded crime statistics.

There were 63 weapons possession offences between July 2017 and June 2018, according to data by the Office for National Statistics. These can include hand guns, knives and even corrosive acid.

That figure is up 91 per cent on 2016-17, when 33 incidents were recorded.

Police have said they will be ‘relentless in their efforts to crack down on serious and organised crime’ and were taken positive action to reduce knife and gun crime.

Last month the force held a weapons amnesty in which 74 knives and two extendable batons were removed from the streets of East Lancashire.

A police spokesman said: “We won’t tolerate criminals who use guns and knives to create fear and intimidation in Lancashire and we are also determined to crack down on the people who help them by storing and looking after illegal weapons.

“We will be relentless in our efforts to crack down on serious and organised crime and I would continue to appeal to the public to tell us if they know where firearms or drugs are being stored, so we can keep taking such positive action.”

The latest weapons statistics are based on crimes reported to the police, and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) urges caution in interpreting some of these figures.

Some offences go unreported while others may be more numerous due to a change in the focus of the police or greater public attention.

However the ONS said that recorded crime figures are reliable for lower volume offences, such as possession of a knife or a gun.

Joe Traynor, from the ONS Centre for Crime and Justice, said: “Over recent decades, we’ve seen continued falls in overall levels of crime but in the last year the trend has been more stable.

“We saw rises in some types of theft and in some lower-volume but higher-harm types of violence.”

Overall, police recorded crime in Blackburn with Darwen increased significantly between July 2017 and June 2018.

Over the 12 month, period 15,974 crimes were recorded, up by 28 per cent on 2016-17.

That means there is a crime for at least one in every 10 residents in Blackburn with Darwen, well above average for England and Wales.

There were 820 residential burglaries reported in Blackburn with Darwen. Due to a change in how the ONS categorises burglaries, the localised figure cannot be compared with other years.

There have been four murders, which are murders or manslaughters.

Theft, one of the most high volume crimes, increased by 16 per cent. Drugs related offences rose by 29 per cent.

Chief Constable Bill Skelly, of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said: “Rising crime is placing greater demand on policing, as forces strive to reduce crime as well as respond to a growing terrorist threat. There are also more calls from the public for help, including responding to people in crisis when other agencies lack their own capacity.”