Another 150 taxis in Plymouth are to be kitted out with emergency equipment to treat people who have been stabbed.

There were 92 weapons crimes recorded in Plymouth last year, with the city centre, Barbican and Sutton Harbour the ‘weapon hotspots’, figures show.

The new kits will bring the number of cabs with potentially life-saving bandages to 400 in the city.

This is a collaboration between the city council, the charity Rapaid Emergency Bandages, and Babcock International which has given ongoing support and funding.

Rapaid Emergency Bandages, which was set up by a former police firearms officer, wants to make life-saving emergency bandages as commonplace and as accessible as fire extinguishers and defibrillators across the UK.

Cllr Sally Haydon (Lab, St Budeaux), cabinet member for community safety who also chairs the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Panel, met taxi drivers, and representatives from the charity and Babcock on Tuesday to hand out the new kits.

She said Plymouth led the way with the first kits in taxis last year.

“The bandages are designed to be quick and easy to use and stem serious blood loss until help arrives,” she said.

They are available to both private and Hackney cab firms.

“We are seeing more knife injuries than we did 10 years ago and we are trying to do anything we can to help,” she said. “If just one person is saved from this, it is a major thing.

“I would hope that none of our taxi drivers would need to use this, but if they do it could save someone’s life.

“I want to express my great thanks to our taxi drivers, they are going to the next level again in trying to make Plymouth a safe place.

“They are sometimes given a hard time but they they are a very good bunch.”