PARKING wardens in Ipswich look set to be issued with stab-proof vests to protect them from knife attacks it has emerged today.As more stabbings have been reported across the country, and the county's knife amnesty continues, it is understood borough council chiefs have taken the radical step of buying ten vests for parking services officers.

TRAFFIC wardens in Ipswich are being issued with stab-proof vests to protect them from knife attacks it has emerged today.

As more stabbings have been reported across the country, and the county's knife amnesty continues, it is understood borough council chiefs have taken the radical step of buying ten vests for parking services officers.

The stab-proof vests, described as “ideal for doormen, bodyguards, security personnel or bailiffs”, were bought from Ipswich army-surplus shop, Kombat.uk.

Managing director of the shop, 27-year-old Roger Granville, said: “We have sold ten vests to the borough council's parking services.

“We have sold them to other parking enforcement firms elsewhere in the country as well.

“I think the borough council approached us because we are based Ipswich and some of the parking services staff may have seen them in the shop and wanted them for protection.”

The shop, based in Norwich Road, also sells the vests, which can be upgraded to make them bulletproof, on an internet auction website for £65 each.

The shop also sells large knives and swords.

Yesterday the Essex Ambulance Service announced it has issued stab proof vest to all its frontline crews.

News of the purchases of stab-proof vests comes at a time when knife crime is at the top of the national agenda and police are holding a knife amnesty.

The Star revealed on Saturday how a Felixstowe primary school had been offered personalised penknives to sell.

And yesterday The Star reported that potentially lethal weapons, including knives, a crossbow and airguns were on sale at a Needham Market car boot sale.

Over the past few weeks there have been several horrific stabbings across the UK.

Detectives were today hunting a killer who stabbed to death a father-of-three as he made his way home from a community fun day in Knowle, Bristol yesterday.

The stabbing came less than 24 hours after a 17-year-old was left lying in a pool of blood in the St Pauls area of Bristol.

On Saturday 19-year-old first-year university student Tom Grant, from Churchdown, in Gloucestershire, died after being stabbed on board a Virgin train travelling from Glasgow to Paignton in Devon.

On Friday a 14-year-old boy suffered serious injuries after being stabbed in the stomach outside a school in Birmingham.

And the week before schoolboy Kiyan Prince was stabbed to death outside a school in London.

A spokesman for Ipswich Borough Council was unavailable to comment.

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