LIFE-SAVING kits designed to control bleeding after someone is stabbed or cut have been places at strategic locations in Dudley and Sandwell amid rising knife crime figures.

Altogether 227 ‘bleed kits,’ which include bandages, tourniquets and gloves, have been paid for by the region’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) David Jamieson to cover the West Midlands.

The medical packs are in key locations, such as pubs, shopping centres and schools and the aim is to get 400 in place across Dudley, Sandwell, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Walsall, Solihull and Coventry.

Locally there are two kits in Brierley Hill, two in Cradley Heath, and one each in Stourbridge and Dudley.

They are at:

• The Chequers Inn, Stourbridge

• The Moon Under Water, Cradley Heath

• Tesco, Cradley Heath

• The Waterfront Inn, Brierley Hill

• Red By Night, Level Street, Brierley Hill

• The Full Moon, High Street, Dudley

The kits are designed to be easy to use and to keep an injured person alive until they can receive treatment from a paramedic or doctor.

The roll out follows campaigning by Lynne Baird, whose son Daniel died in July 2017 after he was stabbed to death in Birmingham.

Knife crime has doubled in the West Midlands since 2012 and the PCC has been keen to ensure these kits are distributed across the region to give victims the best chance of survival.

On average it takes an ambulance 7 minutes to reach a patient, but bleeding from serious injuries can prove fatal in as little as 3.

Mr Jamieson said: “The bleed-control kits are a simple yet smart idea that have been designed to save a life.

“Sadly, knife crime has been rising across the country in the last decade, and so too has the number of fatalities.

“These new kits are good value for money and if they save just one life then they will have been worth the investment.

A map showing where your nearest bleed-control kit is situated can be found at

https://www.westmidlands-pcc.gov.uk/tackling-violence/bleed-control-kits/