Sun 19 February 2023:
Gun crime across England and Wales almost doubled in the space of one year according to shocking new offence statistics which highlighted an astonishing 2533% increase in London alone.
Analysis of Home Office open crime data from the first two quarters of 2021-2022 and 2022-23 show that there were 850 gun offences logged across the two countries – a 49% increase on the year before which saw 570, The Daily Mail reported.
This number includes 237 London incidents – a 2533% increase from the previous year which saw 9 incidents across the same period.
By contrast, knife possession across the capital dropped by 13% – although stats show there were still 1281 incidences.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said its own figures on gun offences were “vastly different” from the Home Office’ police recorded crime open data.
The authority said that according to their own regular updated figures the number of offences committed from April to September 2022 was actually 768 compared to 699 committed in the same period in 2021 – a 14% rise.
Gun crime was also prevalent across other parts of the country including in Manchester which recorded 69 instances of the offence.
Essex recorded an 81% in gun incidents due to 58 offences over the period.
The data showed that principally higher instances of gun crime were linked to towns and cities.
However rural areas were not immune with Gwent recording a 1800% increase on the previous years figures due to 19 offences being committed.
The rise in gun violence was just one of a number of worrying spikes in violent crimes committed in the past year.
MailOnline analysed crime data for ten offences committed across England and Wales and compared rates to those recorded one year earlier.
The data showed that a host of crimes including violent disorder, knife offences, car theft and robbery are on the up.
The research found that knife possession rose by 15% in the space of a year.
Theft of vehicles also rose by 31% with a shocking 64,385 cars reported stolen.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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