Revealed: Half of robberies across England and Wales take place in London

The figures illustrated the spike in violent crime in the capital
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Londoners are suffering nearly half of all the robberies that take place nationwide in a fresh indication of the surge in violent crime in the capital, official figures revealed today.

The Office for National Statistics said there had been a 30 per cent surge in robberies in England and Wales, with 77,103 offences in the 12 months to the end of March this year.

But it said London had seen a “disproportionately high” number of the crimes and accounted for 42 per cent of all robberies in the two countries, with 32,751 muggings taking place in the capital during the year.

The statisticians also disclosed that a quarter of the robberies in London — which include muggings carried out by offenders on mopeds — had been committed using a knife.

Today’s revelations were part of official national crime figures, which also show that there were 98 knife killings in London during the period covered by the statistics. That represents two thirds of all homicides.

The figures show that in London there were also 101 attempted murders involving a blade, 159 knifepoint rapes or sexual assaults, and 5,581 assaults with intent to cause serious injury carried out using a knife.

The overall number of knife offences in London totalled 14,721 — the highest level since 2011, and an increase of more than 50 per cent on the total of 9,688 recorded in 2015, when such offences were at their lowest.

Caroline Youell, of the Office for National Statistics, said most forms of crime were stable but that there had been increases in “high harm” crimes such as homicide and knife offending. She said these were “consistent with rises over the past three years” but that the nationwide rise in gun crime had been “much smaller than previously seen”.

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