The number of attacks involving knives is on the increase in Bermuda - with children as young as 11 years old carrying or using the potentially lethal weapons.

So far this year, Police have responded to a staggering 14 disturbances where knives have been involved, with eight of them resulting in injury.

Last month officers were called to 17 incidents where blades were used. Nine of those led to injury, some of them serious.

And at the end of last year, there were two incidents where young school boys pulled knives on other children in neighbourhood disputes.

The Force's crime manager, Det. Chief Insp. Andrew Boyce said yesterday that it was time people realised that knives, and weapons in general, were in wide use among Bermuda's young men, and said they were being used to settle arguments far too often.

He appealed to parents to find out if their sons and daughters carried weapons, and if so, urged them to hand them over to Police.

He said Police were confiscating some horrific weapons, many of them adapted or specifically made with the sole purpose of causing injury.

The senior detective said: “There seems to be a certain culture forming where young men feel they should carry a knife or other weapon. At times it goes a lot further than carrying them simply as status symbols.

“People carry them because they think they need to protect themselves. There is a culture developing where people believe they should resort to violence to settle disputes.

“But we are even seeing young children with them. In December, there was an incident where three 11-year-old boys held up a ten-year-old with a kitchen knife.

“In the same month, there was an incident where we had a 15 year old go after a nine-year-old with a knife. Fortunately, in both of those incidents nobody was hurt. But we have had a number of incidents involving 14-year-old boys - and some of them involved injury.”

The detective added that although figures for knife and weapon disputes were already quite high, they only accounted for those incidents that Police had been informed about. There was bound to be plenty more that had gone unreported, he said.

“Sometimes, victims may not go to hospital with their injuries, and others may go but we may never find out about it,” said Det. Chief Insp. Boyce.

“If they give the hospital a believable false story, the hospital will not necessarily call us.

“Sometimes we may attend an incident where we believe weapons may have been used, but the victim may have already left, and all that remains is a group of people and a pool of blood.

“It is impossible for us to know how many weapons are out there, but what we can say is that the majority of people that are carrying these weapons may well be using them.”

Det. Chief Insp. Boyce said Friday and Saturday nights were the most likely times for knife attacks to occur.

He said that when people carry knives, they suddenly feel six feet tall, and, after a few alcoholic drinks, they pull out weapons with great ease.

He said: “The majority of incidents we do get are at the weekends and they either occur in the nightclubs or just after people leave them.

“Some nights we can get as many as eight disturbances throughout the Island and it's a drain on Police resources. Many of those incidents will involve weapons and some will result in injury. It's fairly constant and it's causing us some concern.

“I think we have been fortunate to have recognised the problem and we have put units in place to respond to those type of incidents.

“In a number of cases, the units have been able to get there very quickly and, on many occasions, we have prevented some very serious injuries, either by preventing a brawl from getting out of hand, or from weapons being used.

“If you have 50 to 100 people getting ready to be engaged in a brawl, you can guarantee that there are weapons just waiting to come out.”