How does London's spate of killings compare with other cities?

London’s homicide rate is higher than New York’s only by a narrow measure, and for its population size is not the worst in the UK

A spate of recent suspected murders in London has prompted concerns about rising levels of knife and gun crime in the capital. There have been attempts to place the figures into context, both historically and by comparison with other places, but how accurate are the reports?

The Met said on Wednesday that it had recorded 55 suspected murders since the start of 2018 – including the deaths of two children whose bodies were found in Sussex. That number – marking more than a quarter of the year gone – is just over half the total in the capital for all of last year. The total in 2017 was 116, excluding the deaths in the Westminster, London Bridge and Finsbury Park terrorist attacks.