London, April 26: Knife attacks increased by 22 per cent in England and Wales in 2017.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Thursday that the figures showed an 11 per cent increase in firearms offences, reports the BBC.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) said most types of crime stayed at similar levels to 2016.
It added that eight-in-10 adults had not experienced any crimes asked about in the survey throughout 2017.
Recorded homicides were also up by 9 per cent in 2017, to 653 from 599 the previous year.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the rise in these violent incidents was "unacceptably high" and they were "a national problem that required national solutions from the government".
"Today's figures show that, for most types of offence, the picture of crime has been fairly stable, with levels much lower than the peak seen in the mid-1990s," noted Alexa Bradley of the ONS' Crime Statistics and Analysis department.
"We have seen an increase in the relatively rare, but 'high-harm' violent offences such as homicide, knife crime and gun crime, a trend that has been emerging over the previous two years," Bradley added.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
