Stabbings happening at the rate of seven people a day in NSW, data reveals
Paramedics are being called to hundreds of violent stabbing attacks with Sydney’s summer beset by a horrific spate of knife crime. FIND OUT THE SHOCKING AMOUNT OF CALL OUTS.
Paramedics are being called to hundreds of violent stabbing attacks with Sydney’s summer beset by a horrific spate of knife crime.
There were 228 call-outs to NSW Ambulance for stabbings in November and December alone.
There has been at least 14 since Christmas — including one incident which left a man dead inside the Church of Scientology in Chatswood as well as the alleged attempted murder of a 92-year-old.
Ambulance inspector Paul Sweetland said stabbing cases presented intense and difficult circumstances to operate in.
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“Anecdotally from my experience it seems to be on the rise,” Insp Sweetland said.
“They are tough to treat. The stab wounds themselves can appear innocuous but we really don’t know the damage because we can’t see the whole cavity.
“If someone suffers a stab wound to the torso involving the liver, we can apply external pressure but can’t do anything for the liver.”
Stabbings have been occurring at a rate of seven per day in NSW — 2828 people were attacked with knives, swords, screwdrivers and scissors in the year to December 2017, according to bureau of crime statistics data.
Forensic psychologist Julian Parmegiani said stabbing rampages, like last Friday’s Rockdale attack which left one man severely injured and the assailant dead, could be an attempt to inflict maximum damage in a country where gun laws were tight.
“It’s very personal, face-to-face destructive, behaviour … it’s used when people feel incredibly destructive, they’re just in a state of rage,” Dr Parmegiani said.
“(In Australia) the greatest lethality you can get is with a motor vehicle or a knife.”
He said rampage stabbings were often carried out as a result of copycat scenarios: “They get inspired by some other case which is publicised. Someone’s lost the plot and they think I’ve lost the plot too, I’m going to do the same.”
A NSW Police spokeswoman said they had found the recent wave of stabbings challenging.
“The recent level of violence involving knives is concerning,” he said.
“Tough penalties, including life in jail, are in place for anyone who seeks to harm another person.”
A bloody string of stabbing attacks have rocked Sydney in the last week, including one brutal episode targeting a 92-year-old woman on January 2.
The following day, a 16-year-old allegedly killed a Taiwanese national when he stabbed him in the neck at the Church of Scientology at Chatswood.
A crime spree across southwestern Sydney came to a bloody conclusion when 24-year-old Aymen Fakah stabbed Bexley plumber Hassan Rizk in a Rockdale street before taking his own life.
On Monday, police had a 29-year-old man in custody over the alleged screwdriver attack of an associate and in an unrelated attack two men aged 50-years and a 46-year-old were found with stab wounds in a Newcastle unit while police searched for an offender.
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