WE may not be quite in the grip of a knife epidemic bringing terror to our streets, as some national newspapers would have you believe.

But three fatal stabbings in two weeks is enough to raise serious concerns about our knife culture.

On Tuesday, it was a father-of-three stabbed to death as he made his way home from a community fun day in Bristol. Last Saturday, teenage student Tom Grant was fatally knifed on a train travelling from Glasgow to Devon. And on May 18, 16-year-old Kiyan Prince was killed while trying to break up a fight outside a London school.

That is a grim and unacceptable toll. Police are quite right to be taking it seriously.

In the week since the nationwide knife amnesty was launched, more than 30 knives have been handed in to York police. They included two samurai swords and, astonishingly, even a sword-stick.

All these weapons are now out of circulation, making our streets that bit safer.

The trouble with such an amnesty, however, is the people who bring in their knives are, almost by definition, not those who would use them to harm others.

As York police inspector Richard Anderson points out today, you don't need a samurai sword to kill. Even a vegetable peeler can be used to inflict a serious injury.

So, while we welcome the amnesty, we agree with former stab victim Paul Poruba that more needs to be done. It wouldn't make sense to try to outlaw all knives: we need them in the kitchen.

What the Government can and should do is introduce tougher penalties for those convicted of knife crimes. That's a measure that would reach the people who need to be reached, ensuring knife-toting criminals get the punishment they deserve.

We'd all be safer for it.