GETTY Across the EU there has been a wave of people applying for gun licences

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The number of Belgians, in the province of Liege alone, applying for a firearms licence has skyrocketed with applications leaping a massive 117 per cent from 608 permits in 2010 to 1,318 in 2015. Last year 1,436 applications were made, according to the Divisional Commissioner of Liege Thierry Brasseur. Fears over the widespread terror attacks and rising crime appear to be behind the rise, according to Liege’s Service of Arms, the body that grants the firearms licences.

Getty Europe is experiencing a rise in gun licence applications

The department said at a recent symposium: “The explanation may lie in the current security context, which generates feelings of insecurity among the population.” Increased crime rates are also believed to have had an impact, with Belgian newspaper Le Soir reporting there were 180 burglaries and home invasions a day in 2015. France has also seen a steep rise in the number of gun club licensees issued.

Gunman kills two people at concert in Austria Sun, May 22, 2016 Police say a gunman has fired shots into a small crowd at an open air concert in Nenzing , Austria's, killing two people and wounding 11 before shooting himself. Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 8 Police stand guard in Nenzing, near Vorarlberg, at the scene of a shooting where a man fatally shot two individuals and wounded eleven

A survey by L’Obs found that French clubs had seen an rise of 50,000 since 2011, a rise of 40 per cent. The news weekly noted: “Before the beginning of 2015, this was only a vague trend. “Since the attacks of 'Charlie Hebdo', Bataclan and Nice, it has become a movement that is growing.

“In the climate of psychosis across the country, where there are real terrorist threats, multiple insecurity and sometimes fantasies of all kinds, several indicators show that an increasing number of French seek to arm themselves.” In the German city of Cologne, that saw the mass sex assaults by migrants on New Year’s Eve 2015, police have estimated they received 304 applications for gun licences within just two weeks of the appalling scenes. In 2015 the city’s police saw just 408 applications over the entire year.

Getty Arms dealer George Lang in his shop in Antwerp, Beglium