TEENAGERS and children are being told of the dangers carrying a knife creates as police step up efforts to crack down on crimes involving blades.

Thames Valley Police seized 47 knives in a week-long amnesty - 16 in Oxford - after blades ranging from carving knives to meat cleavers be handed in at stations.

The amnesty came after shocking footage emerged of a 12-year-old boy stabbing another with knife in an Oxford Park in June.

The video, which cannot be shown for legal reasons, showed a 13-year-old boy being attacked with a knife in a play area off Marston Road and Jack Straw’s Lane.

The 12-year-old attacker was handed a nine-month referral order at Oxford Youth Court after pleading guilty to grievous bodily harm and possession of a knife.

The brutal park assault in June sparked calls for parents and schools to educate children and teenagers about the risks of carrying knives.

In an exclusive interview with the Oxford Mail, the mother of the 13-year-old victim said she felt anxious, on edge and unsafe as she called for a knife amnesty to be brought forward by the police and schools.

The mother said she learned her son was being attacked when his 12-year-old brother called his dad to say there were kids in the park with a ‘weapon’.

She said her son has been left with scars on his face.

She added: “His younger brother was crying down the phone. It was really traumatic. Me and my husband were driving around trying to find which park they were in. We were absolutely frantic.”

The parents found their sons and took the 13-year-old, who was bleeding and had several wounds, to hospital.

The mother said it later came to light that the teenager had attended the park for a ‘pre-arranged fight’.

The mother said her son, 13, who is autistic, had been messaging the 12-year-old boy over social media in a long term feud.

The footage showed the 12-year-old attacker lunge at the teenager with a knife, before the pair get into a scuffle. Struggling and grabbing each other, the 12-year-old then plunges the knife into the the victim several times before the video stops.

The mother of the victim said her son did not understand the danger he was in due to his condition, adding: “He sees things very black and white.”

Thames Valley Police said the Father’s Day incident was reported to them by a member of the public, and the 12-year-old boy was arrested on June 23 and charged the following day.

Latest figures show the number of reports to police of people packing weapons increased by 5.6 per cent between March 2016 to April 2017, compared to the same period the year before.

A total of 114 incidents of people possessing weapons in Oxford were reported to police, compared to 108 in 2015/16 and 73 in 2014/15.

It is believed teenagers are more likely to carry a knife for protection, which is the reason officers have been visiting schools and colleges to raise awareness of the dangers of carrying a blade.

Chief Inspector Helen Roberts, the officer responsible for coordinating Operation Sceptre, said a person was ‘four times more likely’ to become a victim of knife crime, if they carried a weapon themselves.

She added: “People feel a sense of being invincible when they carry a knife, which is not the case, and they make risky decisions as a result putting themselves in dangerous situations.”