FOLLOWING a spate of knife-related incidents in the town a free knife awareness seminar is being held.

The workshop, organised by the Redditch Selfdefence Association, will be held at Redditch Boxing Academy.

Founder of the association Pete Martin said: "We believe there is a real need to tackle this problem in the Redditch area based on the statistics we have reviewed. Crime stats for Police.UK show our area as above average for violent crime.

"We will deliver a structured programme that will educate the participants in awareness and avoidance skills, safe behaviours, the aftermath of violent crime and understanding the consequences.

"It will encourage people to adopt safe behaviours and/or to make positive choices towards the prevention of crime."

The knife awareness seminar is on Sunday, August 26 from 1pm until 3pm.

Participants do not need to take part in the physical aspects they can just learn from the advice given.

For more information, go to redditchselfdefence.co.uk.