Black youths are suspected of more than half of knife crime among children in the capital, according to confidential Scotland Yard figures

A highly-sensitive report reveals that 124 of the 225 under-18s legally proceeded against for knife offences in the past three months are from the black community. Yet in the overwhelming majority of reported cases of knife crime involving young people, the victims are white. In cases where ethnicity was logged by police, 222 of the 345 under-18s attacked or threatened with a blade since April 1 were white. Sixty-one were black. The ethnicity of a further 292 victims aged under 18 was not stated. According to official figures, approximately one in eight of the London population is black. The Scotland Yard knife statistics - which have caused alarm in the Home Office - also reveal interesting trends in other age categories. In the 18-29 age bracket, 312 people were accused of knife offences from April 1. Of these 125 were white and 115 black. Three hundred of the victims in this category were white, 153 black and 118 Asian.