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The number of murders in Birmingham jumped from 11 to 16 last year, new crime figures have revealed.

Latest Home Office figures also show attempted murders more than DOUBLED in the same period from 25 in 2014-15 to 57 in the following year.

Some of the increase is linked to the gun crimewave which gripped the city since last summer. Four men were shot dead in a six month period between October and March and many more were injured in dozens of shootings.

Convictions include two men who were jailed for 50 years for the murder of Connor Smith, who was shot dead in Kings Norton last October.

Leon Frye, 28, of Rodney Close, Ladywood, was sentenced 30 years, whole accomplice Philip Baillie was handed a 20 year sentence.

Meanwhile, court cases and investigations are still ongoing into other murders, including Akhtar Javeed,Derek Junior Myers and Kenichi Phillips.

West Midlands Chief Constable David Thompson told the Police and Crime Board in January that shootings were happening in the city with “concerning regularity”.

Earlier this month he told the same Board that the situation had eased, but said the problem of guns had “not gone away and will not go away”.

“The concerning regularity we spoke about at the start of the year has now ceased,” he reported.

“But I still remain worried about the level of availability that exists, although that availability is not anywhere near European levels, or the dark days of the early 2000s.”

WATCH: West Midlands Police issue warning over dangers of fake guns

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Last week a man turned up at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital with a gunshot wound to his shoulder after two cars were hit in a drive-by shooting in Sparkbrook.

Police are still looking for witnesses to the incident, which happened in Barrows Road at 8.15pm on Wednesday night.

The Home Office figures reveal that there were 111 ‘murderous crimes’ in 2015-16 across the West Midlands, which included 30 homicides, 79 attempted murders and two conspiracies to murder. This was an increase of 39 per cent compared with the previous year.

Across the country as a whole, there has been the biggest increase in five years in homicide rates, which are up six per cent,

Cases of conspiracy to murder were up from 40 to 48, while attempted murders increased by a fifth from 567 to 677.

Boston in Lincolnshire was the most murderous place in England and Wales last year with the three homicides and one conspiracy to murder and six attempted murders, working out as 14.9 crimes per 100,000 residents.

MURDER IN NUMBERS: Area/Murders, attempt murder and conspiracy for 2015-16 (Rate per 100,000 people)

Birmingham: 75 (6.7)

Wolverhampton: 8 (3.1)

Sandwell: 13 (4.1)

Coventry: 2 (0.6)

Dudley: 7 (2.2)

Walsall: 3 (1.1)

Solihull: 3 (1.4)

Area/Homicides 2015-16

Birmingham: 16

Wolverhampton: 2

Sandwell: 7

Coventry: 0

Dudley: 2

Walsall: 2

Solihull: 1