LONDON – A 27-foot sculpture made out of 100,000 knives could be placed on the fourth plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square in tribute to victims of knife crime.
The sculpture, named “Knife Angel,” was created in Oswestry, Shropshire, by the British Ironwork Centre. It took two years to build.
The knives were handed in by 41 police forces around the country during amnesties and confiscations.
The campaign, “Save a Life, Surrender Your Knife,” and the statue aims to raise awareness of the growing issue of knife crime throughout the UK.
“The monument was created for one purpose, to highlight this extensive problem. Both government and the educational system need to open their eyes to the epidemic,” the British Ironwork Centre’s website says.
Here are some pictures of the impressive statue:
This is "Knife Angel."
Families affected by knife crime, police officers, politicians, celebrities, community leaders, and ex-gang members welded their own knives on the sculpture as a symbolical gesture.
Some of the knives are engraved with victims' names or messages from their families.
Some parents who lost their children to knife crimes also ceremonially handed over knives to the construction of the statue.
Trish Bergan, mother of Jerome Eugene Bergan who was stabbed in Strelley in December 2002, told the Nottingham Post that she broke down when she saw the statue.
"I saw all the knives and I think you are doing a very good job. It was unfinished at the time but I'm so pleased my son's name is going to be engraved on one of these knives and he will never ever be forgotten," Bergan said.
According to the British Ironwork Centre, the statue is the only memorial ever created with all the different police forces and the Home Office working together...
... and will be Britain's biggest monument against violence and aggression ever created.
