London's Murder Rate Overtakes New York's

Last night, two shootings in the space of an hour left a 17-year-old girl dead and a 16-year-old boy critically injured in London. The incidents occurred in the Tottenham and Walthamstow areas of the city. Concern about violent crime in the UK's capital is rising steadily amid a spate of shootings and stabbings over the past few months.

New data released by the NYPD and Metropolitan Police has found that London's murder rate has now overtaken New York's. Both cities have a similar population size and the latter has seen its murder rate decrease noticeably in recent years. London's has been going up and it actually experienced a higher murder rate than New York in both February and March of 2018. In February, New York had 11 murders compared to London's 15.

London was also ahead of New York in March with police investigating 22 murders compared to 21 in the Big Apple. When it comes to the total number of murders in the first three months of the year, however, New York is still slightly ahead of London. Despite the grim statistics, the Metropolitan Police has insisted that London "remains one of the safest cities in the world".