Knife Angel arrives in Leeds
The touring Knife Angel sculpture, made up of over 100,000 seized knives has arrived in Leeds
The Knife Angel has arrived in Leeds and will remain for the month.
It will be placed outside the Royal Armouries Museum, standing 27ft tall and made from over 100,000 seized blades, was created by the British Ironwork Centre to highlight the impact of knife crime.
The sculpture features messages from families of victims of knife crime.
Councillor Debra Coupar, Leeds City Council's executive member for resources with responsibility for Safer Leeds, said: “Although the rates of knife crime have been falling, it remains a serious issue and has a devastating impact on individuals, families and communities.
“We’re looking forward to hosting the Knife Angel sculpture during February, both as a monument to lives we’ve tragically lost, and as a force to help reinforce the work we’ve been doing around how we can change these behaviours as quickly as possible.
“As a city we take knife crime and violence in general very seriously and it’s something we and our partners work hard to address with young people and their parents or guardians. We’d like to encourage everyone to come down and see the sculpture for themselves and not be afraid to speak to each other about these issues.”
Leeds District Commander, Chief Superintendent Steve Dodds, said: “We are acutely aware of the tragic consequences of youth knife crime, the young lives that have been senselessly lost here in Leeds and the families who are left to live with that.
“While we have been working hard alongside our partner agencies to tackle the issue and are seeing reductions, any incident of this kind will always be one too many.
“The root causes and driving factors around young people involved in knife crime are much wider than policing alone and it is only through everyone across our communities playing their part that we will continue make progress.
“The arrival of the Knife Angel and the work that sits around it over the coming month will be an excellent opportunity to build on the work we have been doing to reduce incidents and keep our young people and our communities safe.”