Call to ban online knife sales
Trading standards chiefs have called for a blanket ban on the sale of knives over the internet.
Online retailers have ignored repeated warnings to stop selling them to children, accroding to the Trading Standards Institute (TSI).
Mystery shopper research found up to four out of five online stores were prepared to sell knives to children aged under 18.
In one case a 15-year-old boy was able to purchase four knives, including a large machete, using a debit card.
The call for a ban was backed by campaign groups set up by mothers of men who were stabbed to death.
Online research by six trading standards teams found 58 out of 72 websites would sell knives to children.
Some big stores, including Marks & Spencer, Asda and John Lewis, have already removed knives, excluding cutlery sets, from their online shopping sites.
Meanwhile members of 42 local authority trading standards teams across England and Wales discovered one in four shops sold knives illegally to youngsters. A nationwide survey found 214 out of 835 stores sold knives to children with no questions asked.
The purchases included a variety of knives including large combat weapons, everyday kitchen knives and and smaller pocket blades.
In some areas, including Warwickshire, Bexley and Northamptonshire, traders refused to sell to young volunteers posing as customers. But in other places such as Essex, Blackpool, Sunderland and Bury a significant number of shopkeepers sold potentially deadly weapons to children.
