GLASGOW’S world-leading violence reduction unit is to be replicated in London, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan has announced.

The VRU was set up in 2005 by Strathclyde Police who were the first force to adopt a public health approach to violence.

Figures show between April 2006 and April 2011 in Scotland, 40 children and teenagers were killed in homicides involving a knife; between 2011 and 2016 the figure fell to eight.

The decline was greatest in Glasgow, which once had one of the highest murder rates in western Europe.

Between 2006 and 2011, 15 children and teenagers were killed with knives in Scotland’s largest city and between April 2011 and April 2016, none were.