Violent crime rises by 19% as 5m offences are logged in England and Wales

Violent crime has soared in England and Wales in the last year, pushing the number of crimes recorded by police past five million.

The overall number of offences registered by forces rose to 5.2m, an increase of 13% in the 12 months to June, the Office for National Statistics said.

The previous year's total was 4.6m.

The ONS said crime it called "violent," including knife crime, sex offences and violence against the person, surged by 19%.

There was a 10% increase in the violence with injury bracket, attributed to a jump in recorded assaults.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales, which is based on people's experiences and published on the same day as the official crime figures, suggests there were 10.8m offences overall.

It did, though, record a nine percent decrease in like-for-like crimes compared to the previous year.

The number of murders fell by two percent, with forces logging 664 offences, but attempted murders, boosted by recent terror attacks, saw a "substantial increase" of 59%.

Knife crime rose again, as police recorded nearly 37,000 incidents in all, the highest number since comparable data records began seven years ago.

The Metropolitan Police had the largest jump, accounting for nearly half of the rise, but 38 of 44 police forces saw an increase in crimes involving a knife or sharp instrument.

Sex crimes also saw a sharp rise of 19% to just under 130,000, including a 22% increase in rape offences.

The ONS report said: "Most of this volume increase was thought to result from improved recording practices but it is likely that rises in the most serious categories reflect genuine rises in violent crime.

"These lower volume but serious offences are thought to be generally well-recorded by the police."