Many of the busiest roads in and out of Birmingham were rocked by unprecedented scenes of violence after at least six people were stabbed in just a 12 hour period over the weekend.

Bristol Road, Stratford Road and Great Hampton Street were all crime scenes on Saturday, August 22 as post-lockdown knife crime reaches pandemic proportions.

Four people were stabbed during a street battle involving up to 15 people in the Jewellery Quarter shortly before 5am.

Just six hours later, a knifeman allegedly threatened to kill people inside a mini market – but armed police rushed to the area and arrested a man at gunpoint before anyone could be hurt.

Later the same afternoon, a man was stabbed in the neck and arm as a fight broke out between occupants of two cars in Stratford Road.

And the city’s horrifying day of violence finally ended in further tragedy as a man was found slumped in the roadside with a fatal stab wound to his chest just before 5pm. Five people – three men, a woman and a girl of 15 – were arrested.

This follows a splurge in crime in London and other UK cities as estate agents report unparalleled numbers of people moving out of the cities. This is being witnessed in big cities across the Western World with New York and San Francisco being described as ghost cities.