Gardaí in Waterford are issuing a warning after a spike in knife crime recently.
Over the last two weeks there have been five separate incidents reported.
Waterford's Crime Prevention Officer, Sergeant Deirdre O'Neill, says most of these kinds of incidents aren't premeditated.
And she's told WLR News that people often don't know the law around carrying a knife with them...
"We have seen a number of knife crimes over the last couple of weeks and they all pretty much started as a row or an altercation and then they escalated into something which turned out to be fairly serious - not just for the physical injuries that the person sustains but also the psychological trauma of that.
"Many people may not be aware that it is illegal to carry a knife or a blade or a weapon that can be used in a row, unless you have lawful authority."
Explaining further, Sergeant O'Neill said you have to have very specific reasons to justify having a knife on you:
"So, if you're an electrician, you can carry a Stanley knife with a set blade on it.
"However, if you're out on a Friday night, you would have to have a pretty good reason for having that blade on you at that time.
"That's where the guards will initiate prosecution. The matter will go to the law officers, they'll decide if a prosecution should ensue and then ultimately it will be up to the judge to determine whether or not a conviction in that case will be handed down."
There are very specific requirements you must abide by when carrying a blade but Sergeant O'Neill says it's always better to err on the side of caution:
"You could have a blade on you, a single Stanley blade, and that's considered dangerous because there's no casing on it, there's no cover on it and it could be used as a weapon.
"So, each case is kind of determined on the circumstances.
"It is an offence under section 9.1 of the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act (1990) to carry a knife or another article, which has a blade or is pointed, in a public place."
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