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The rate of knife attacks in some regional towns and cities is higher than in many London boroughs, analysis of police figures suggests.

Overall, London remains the most dangerous part of England and Wales – but data, obtained from 34 of the 43 police forces, shows the rate of serious knife crime offences rising sharply in some areas outside London, and outstripping some of the city’s boroughs in places like the city of Manchester, Slough, Liverpool and Blackpool.

«We are suffering just as much as anywhere else,» said Byron Highton whose brother Jon-Jo was 18 when he was stabbed to death with a sword and an axe as he walked home in Preston, in 2014. «The whole country is suffering from knife crime, but small cities in the north like Preston get no mention.»
Under Freedom of Information Law, the BBC asked all 43 regional police forces in England and Wales for details of serious knife crime in their area.

Serious knife crime is defined as any assault, robbery, threat to kill, murder, attempted murder or sexual offence involving a knife or sharp instrument.

In Lancashire, the figures show knife crime has doubled in five years, rising from 455 offences in 2014, to 981 in 2018.

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A knife-wielding employee has killed three officers and one administrative worker at police headquarters in the centre of the French capital, Paris.

The attacker, who has not been named, was shot dead by police. Witnesses described scenes of panic, with many people fleeing the building in tears. The area in the île de la Cité has been sealed off.

The attack comes a day after police went on strike across France over increasing violence towards officers. The Paris prosecutor said a murder investigation had been launched.

A motive for the attack remains unclear. However, police union officials have suggested the attacker may have been involved in a workplace dispute.

At about 13:00 local time (11:00 GMT; 12:00 BST), the attacker is said to have gone into the building and straight to his office where he began attacking colleagues with a knife. He stabbed three people inside two offices and two women on a stairway, before he was shot dead by an officer inside the building’s courtyard, according to French media. Three men and one woman were killed, Paris prosecutor Remy Heitz told reporters.

A fifth person was critically injured in the attack. The building is near major tourist sites including the Notre-Dame cathedral.

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Environmental protesters have sprayed fake blood over the Treasury building in central London.

The Extinction Rebellion demonstrators parked an old fire engine outside the 100-year-old building with 1,800 litres of coloured water on board. But they quickly lost control of the hose and the red liquid was instead sprayed across the road.

Five men and three women, aged between 34 and 83, have been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage. Protesters say they are «highlighting the inconsistency between the UK government’s insistence that the UK is a world leader in tackling climate breakdown and the vast sums it pours into fossil fuel exploration and carbon-intensive projects».

Phil Kingston, an 83-year-old activist, said: «I fight with all my being for my four grandchildren in this situation of existential danger.»

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said there were no reported injuries and the fire engine had been seized and removed from the scene.

The master of a container ship locked four stowaways in quarantine after fearing they were Boko Haram terrorists, a court has heard.

The men, from Nigeria and Liberia, allegedly armed themselves with metal poles and threw faeces onboard the ship in the Thames Estuary in December.

Samuel Jolumi, 27, Ishola Sunday, 28, Toheeb Popoola, 27, and Joberto McGee, 20, deny attempting to hijack the ship.

Antonio Raggi told the Old Bailey he was «worried» for his crew’s safety.

The men, who also deny making threats to kill and affray, had been discovered six days into the voyage from Lagos, Nigeria, to Tilbury in Essex.

Mr Raggi, master of the Italian-flagged Grande Tema, said: «For me, these guys could be terrorists, Boko Haram, I don’t know. «They come on board, they break the safety, the security of the vessel. «My problem is if these guys have put something in a part of the vessel and after are going to come and get weapons.»

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Iran’s judiciary says it has convicted three people of spying for the US, sentencing one of them to death, and another person of spying for the UK.

Spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said two men, Ali Nafariyeh and Mohammadali Babapour, had received 10-year prison sentences for working for the CIA.

Mohammad Amin Nasab was jailed for 10 years for aiding British intelligence.

Mr Esmaili said he would not identify the person sentenced to death because the verdict was subject to appeal. It was not clear if any of those convicted were among 17 people who Iran’s intelligence ministry said had been arrested for spying for the CIA earlier this year.

The ministry alleged they had been collecting information in nuclear and military facilities and in the private sector – allegations that US President Donald Trump dismissed as «totally false».

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