BRITAIN has become a Wild West with a “constant torrent” of murders as children as young as nine carry knives, a top cop has warned.

Jackie Sebire hit out at the rising levels of violence as she revealed 69,000 kids were wounded in the 12 months to June.

That figure — covering stabbings and violence that cause severe injury to ten to 15-year-olds — was up by 4,000 on the previous year.

Ms Sebire, assistant chief constable of Bedfordshire police, said the current crimewave is worse than anything she has seen during her 26-year career.

She told the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s annual conference yesterday: “I’ve worked in some really challenging London boroughs.

"This is different, this level of violence, this constant torrent of every single day there is another stabbing, that we can’t seem to get ahead of.”

Ms Sebire said that young criminals were showing a disregard for the consequences of their actions, adding: “I am not surprised when they’re 12.

“We’ve seen nine and ten-year-olds, that’s the thing that’s changed.

“It is happening because their brothers are doing it, their friends at school are doing it.”

It follows NPCC chair Sara Thornton’s comments that cops spend too much time looking into issues such as misogyny that are “deserving” but not crimes.

National crime survey figures show homicide is up by 14 per cent while knife possession has increased by 21 per cent.

Murders in London have reached their highest in more than a decade, with more than 100 victims in 2018 so far.

FIVE police chiefs have warned Home Secretary Sajid Javid that expanding the definition of hate crime could keep cops from solving violent offences and burglaries.

Thames Valley chief constable Francis Habgood said: “The risk is we flag so many [offences] that we become swamped.”