LONDON — A man was thrown onto a busy road and repeatedly stabbed by gang members after leaving a concert in South London. A teenage boy was attacked and killed by two machete-wielding assailants, and two moped riders carried out five acid attacks across East London within 90 minutes.

These are just a tiny fraction of the violent crimes carried out across England and Wales over the past month, creating the perception that the region is in the grip of a crime wave. That idea was reinforced on Thursday with a report by the Office for National Statistics showing that in the last year, the crime rate has risen at its fastest clip in over a decade.

The overall number of recorded crimes rose by 10 percent, the report said, with an 18 percent increase in violent crimes and a 26 percent increase in the murder rate. Some, but not all, of that can be attributed to improved recording practices by the police, experts say.

“The latest figures show the largest annual rise in crimes recorded by the police in a decade,” said John Flatley, the head of crime statistics and analysis at the Office for National Statistics. “While ongoing improvements to recording practices are driving this volume rise, we believe actual increases in crime are also a factor in a number of categories.”