London has experienced a spike in stabbings and shootings, but is the rate per 100,000 people any worse than other UK regions?

Sky News has identified that in the first quarter of this year, 46 people have been killed in London.

A shocking figure and one that is prompting headlines along the lines of "London Murder Rate Overtakes New York".

It is true to say that this spike in violent crime in the capital has led to more murders committed in the city in February and March than there were in New York - but context is important.

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Image: Tanesha Melbourne, 17, died on 2 April, bringing the number of London homicides to 45

Firstly, New York's homicide rate has been declining steadily since a horrendous period in the 1990s when more than 2,000 people were killed each year.

Last year, the NYPD investigated 290 homicides.

Perhaps the best way to look at these figures is per 100,000 population.

On that metric, New York has the lowest rate per 100,000 of any of the United States' five largest cities.

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Using Office for National Statistics figures for homicide - both murder and manslaughter - in each British constabulary area (Sept 2016 - Sept 2017), we can see that London has a rate of 1.45 homicides per 100,000 people.

This is around the same as Leicestershire (1.5), West Yorkshire (1.45) and Derbyshire (1.6).

There are plenty of places with a worse rate and some may surprise you.

Image: (L-R) Steve Narvaez-Jara, Abraham Badru and Hannah Leonard were killed in London in 2018

The worst is Greater Manchester where 61 deaths led to a rate of around 2.44 homicides per 100,000 people.

There were 12 homicides in Glasgow last year leading to a rate of about two per 100,000 and West Midlands Police recorded 44 homicides, giving the area a rate of about 1.76.

Even North Wales Police, who recorded 13 homicides, has a higher rate than London at about 1.88.

All of this, of course, does not detract from problems the capital faces.

Image: Youth worker Kwabena Nelson, 22, was stabbed to death in Tottenham

If the current rate of homicides continues at the pace we have seen so far, there could be as many as 180 people killed on the streets this year.

The bigger picture is that about 750 people were killed either by murder or manslaughter in the UK last year.

Here is the breakdown:

:: England: 641 homicides (Sep 2016 - Sept 2017)

:: Wales: 32 homicides (Sep 2016 - Sep 2017)

:: Northern Ireland: 15 homicides (Jan 2017- Jan 2018)

:: Scotland: 64 homicides (Oct 2016 - Oct 2017)