Children as young as 11 are to be targeted by a West Midlands Police campaign designed to get knives off the region's streets.

The One Knife One Life initiative, which is launched today, involves a massive force-wide knife surrender plan and an intensive awareness-raising programme aimed at school pupils.

The senior police officer leading the campaign said it has been launched amid fears that it was becoming "culturally acceptable" for young people to carry knives.

Chief Superintendent Peter Goodman said teenagers were in danger of embarking on an "unconscious journey" which could see them becoming offenders or victims of knife attackers.

A recent study found that one in four 15 to 16-year-olds has admitted carrying a knife, and many were vulnerable people who wanted to make themselves feel stronger.

The campaign will see knife surrender banks being sited across the region, an increase in police stop-and-search operations in hot-spot areas, and the launch of a schools engagement programme.

Chief Supt Goodman, who is also commander of Birmingham city centre, said: "Knife crime is actually down but it is becoming culturally acceptable to carry a knife.

"One in four 15 to 16-year-olds has admitted carrying a knife at some time, either as a fashion accessory, to give them what they see as credibility, or out of a perceived fear.

"We are talking about really dangerous hunting or fishing knives, which most people would have no reason to keep in the house.

"We are all becoming complacent, including the police. And legislation does not necessarily reflect the seriousness of the potential consequences of carrying a knife.

"Knives and people carrying knives is beginning to become routine in all our consciousness but it is not routine for the victims of knife crime or for their families and it is not routine to the people serving 15 years in prison."

Chief Supt Goodman said there was evidence to suggest that people who feel bullied, or intimidated by stronger people, will carry a knife to make themselves feel stronger.

He also said that, despite media concern over gun crime, knife crime was a far more common problem for police.

The campaign includes the roll-out of 'Tooled Up for School', an interactive DVD which will be screened in assemblies and citizenship classes for Key Stage 3 and 4 pupils (11 to 16-year-olds).

Along with 26 knife surrender banks at supermarkets, there will also be 50 knife surrender bins located at designated police stations across the region and other suitably secure public sector and partner locations.