Bleed control kits and knife searches to stop more people dying of stab wounds in Milton Keynes?

The attack was the fourth knife murder to happen in just 10 weeks in MK. And it has caused an outrage on social media as people question what is happening to the place they once considered safe.

Some say the answer to the horrifying surge in knife crime would be for police to designate all of Milton Keynes as an official stop and search area under Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act.

This would enable officers to stop people at will and frisk them for weapons.

Due to the manpower needed, stop and search is costly and time consuming to operate. Usually, the power is used only temporarily, in a defined area and over a limited time period, such as during the recent funfair at Campbell Park.

One member of the public insisted: "It's time to Section 60 the whole of MK. I'd rather my kids were stopped and searched every day than them not coming home...Personally I would not mind a few minutes of minor inconvenience to save lives and get knives off the streets."

But another said: "You can't police a whole town 24/7 .... Resources are already thin, and it's simply not viable to have police patrolling every estate, day and night."

Other people are suggesting that 'bleed control kits' should be available in readily-accessible places throughout Milton Keynes to increase victims' chances of surviving a stabbing.

Residents on Oxley Park watched as paramedics struggled to save the latest victim, a man in his early twenties, as he lay bleeding on Tuesday afternoon.

But sadly their efforts were too late and he died later at Milton Keynes hospital.

Just three weeks earlier, 22-year-old Mohamud Hashi bled to death from a stab wound on his thigh in a grassy area between CMK and Fishermead. He was dead by the time emergency services arrived.

Bleed control kits are designed to be used by the nearest person at the scene, often before paramedics arrive, and they contain a variety of products designed to stop bleeding in various parts of the body.

These include tourniquets and highly absorbent, padded dressings with an elasticated pressure bandage attached to allow serious amounts of sustained pressure to be applied to the wound.

"Recently bleed kits were distributed to hundreds of bars and pubs in London. Why can't this happen in Milton Keynes? They would undoubtedly give the victims more of a chance," said one social media user.

But another said: "The kits may be a good idea but they are not treating or addressing the actual problem of why so many people in Milton Keynes are carrying knives at the moment - and using them."

Meanwhile a charity called citizenAID has even produced an app to help the public save lives during emergencies, including a stabbing.

A spokesman for the charity said: "Most bleeds can be controlled with hard and direct pressure and that should always be the first course of action."

The citizenAID app can be downloaded free from Google Play or Apple app Store.