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It started Saturday lunchtime with a fight at a shopping plaza and ended with the body of a man being wheeled past apartment residents early Monday morning — five murders in Toronto in a span of just 38 hours.

It is an unusual tally.

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The 48 homicides Toronto has suffered so far this year is more than double the 23 murders at this point last year, and higher than the two years before that, as well. The weekend spike is easily eclipsed in scale, however, by the 10 homicides in a span of minutes earlier this year in the Toronto van attack, an extraordinary incident that inflates this year’s statistical as well as emotional toll.

Several of Toronto’s recent slayings have been inordinately public, not only the van attack but also last week’s death of a 73-year-old man who was allegedly pushed into the path of a subway train as he stood on a busy transit platform.

It all creates increased anxiety about crime, a feeling Toronto Mayor John Tory has said will be a priority for him and Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders.