PEOPLE in Inverclyde are being urged to be extra vigilant after concerns were raised at a public meeting over the use of 'Rambo-style' knives.

Councillor James Daisley said he had been told by friends and family that the use of the knives - with a curved back and a serrated blade - is on the increase.

After Cllr Daisley raised the issue at a meeting of Inverclyde Council's police and fire scrutiny panel, Chief Inspector David Docherty, the senior police officer for Renfrewshire and Inverclyde, said he did not believe the weapons were a significant concern in the local area.

But Cllr Daisley insists he still wants Inverclyde residents to be vigilant in view of the area's history of knife crime. 

Speaking after the panel's meeting, Cllr Daisley told the Tele: "I have been made aware personally, from people I know and family members anectodally, of an increase in the 'popularity' of these weapons, for want of a better word to use.

"I've been informed that they have been more widely used - not particularly in my ward, but in Inverclyde as a whole.

"I have seen a video of these knives, and it is terrifying. It's a long knife with a serrated edge.

"Someone showed a video a couple of months ago waving one about outside a Greenock nightclub.

"As a parent who has one child who could have been in that nightclub, it is terrifying."

Cllr Daisley said he was very supportive of the No Knives Better Lives campaign and the good work that was done then by John Muir, the father of Damian Muir, whom James worked with in his first job.

Councillor Daisely said: "In my first job I worked with Damian Muir, who was a victim of knife crime and his father campaigned passionately to tackle knife crime in Inverclyde.

"Carrying any knife can have a devastating effect on any human being.

"Chief Inspector Doherty said that he didn't think that it was a particular issue in Inverclyde.

" I can't disagree with that - he is an expert - but personally I have been made aware.

"I think at a local level people should be extra vigilant."

Speaking at the meeting Chief Inspector Doherty told Cllr Daisley he was "aware of the type of knife you are speaking about, which has been reported in the national press", but said that in his experience they were not a major problem in Inverclyde.