London overtook New York in the number of murders in a month for the first time in modern history in February as the British capital suffered through a dramatic surge in knife crime, The Sunday Times reported.
Fifteen people were murdered in London, compared with 14 in New York. Both cities have almost exactly the same population of about 8.5 million.
Once official numbers for March are tabulated, it appears that London murders will again exceed New York's, as the latest figures towards the end of the month had London at 22 killings and New York at 21.
London has witnessed a sharp increase in murders since 2014, Even excluding victims of terrorism, the number of those killed has gone up by 38 percent. Meanwhile, over the past two decades, New York's rate has gone down by around 87 percent.
However, the Independent pointed out that London remains substantially the safer city overall despite this recent trend, with less than half the homicides of New York throughout all of last year.
A spokesperson for the London Metropolitan police told the Independent that there is worry about the increased number of murders.
"London remains one of the safest cities in the world," the spokesperson said. "The Met is concerned at the increase in murders in London, and specialist detectives from the Met's Homicide and Major Crime Command are investigating.
"One murder is one to many, and we are working hard with our partners to understand the increase and what we can all do to prevent these tragedies from happening in the first place."
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