Students heading off for freshers week are being warned to look out for drink spiking, with the LGA saying the start of university often sees a rise in incidents due to more nights out in bars and clubs.

Figures suggest there were more than 1,300 reports of needle spiking between September last year and January.

Cllr Nesil Caliskan, Chair of the LGA’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board, was interviewed by Times Radio and said:

“Freshers week is an extraordinary time, you meet hundreds of people and at that point you may not know them very well, but in many ways you’re all in the same boat and just keeping a look out to see if somebody’s displaying symptoms, loss of balance, feeling sleepy etc, that’s really helpful.”