POLICE have registered sharp increases in knife and gun crime amid mounting concern over spiralling levels of violence.

Official figures show forces in England and Wales also recorded rises in homicide and robbery last year.

In London as a whole, the figures crew by 7 pe rcent - 809,049.

The City of London was one of the only areas where incidents fell, by 1 per cent, or 5,338.

Essex, which is responsible for Epping, saw incidents go up by 11 per cent or 130,757.

In findings that will place the Government's efforts to make Britain's streets safer under the spotlight, statisticians reported that there had been an increase in "high-harm" violent offences.

Forces logged 39,598 offences involving a knife or sharp instrument in 2017, a 22% increase compared with the previous year, and the highest number registered since comparable records started in 2010.

Offences involving firearms were also up, by 11% to 6,604 recorded crimes.

These offences tend to be disproportionately concentrated in London and other metropolitan areas, the Office for National Statistics said, but it added that the majority of police force areas saw rises in these types of violent crime.

The figures showed the number of homicides went up by 54, or 9%, to a total of 653, when cases linked to the Hillsborough disaster and last year's terror attacks were excluded.

In the overall category of "violence against the person", there were 1.3 million crimes logged, a rise of a fifth on the number in 2016.

Recorded burglary and robbery offences went up by 9% and 33% respectively, while the separate Crime Survey for England and Wales showed a 17% jump in vehicle thefts.

In total, police recorded 5.4 million offences, a 13% year-on-year rise.

According to the crime survey, which the ONS says is the most reliable indicator of long-term trends in the most common types of offending experienced by the general population, there were an estimated 10.6 million incidents of crime, a fall of 7% on the previous 12 months.

The number of violent offences as measured by the CSEW was unchanged, at 1.2million.

ONS statistician Alexa Bradley said: "Today's figures show that, for most types of offence, the picture of crime has been fairly stable, with levels much lower than the peak seen in the mid-1990s.

"Eight in 10 adults had not experienced any of the crimes asked about in our survey in the latest year.

"However, we have seen an increase in the relatively rare, but 'high-harm' violent offences such as homicide, knife crime and gun crime, a trend that has been emerging over the previous two years.

"We have also seen evidence that increases in some types of theft have continued, in particular vehicle-related theft and burglary."

Earlier this month Home Secretary Amber Rudd launched a multi-pronged strategy to tackle serious violence.

But the blueprint -unveiled against a backdrop of mounting calls for action following a flurry of killings in London - was overshadowed by a fresh row over police numbers.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: "These statistics show once again that crime, and violent crime in particular, is rising at an unacceptably high rate across the whole of England and Wales, including London.

"This is clearly a national problem that requires national solutions from the Government."

Here is the number of offences recorded by each police force in England and Wales in 2017, together with the percentage change on 2016.

Avon and Somerset 139,644 (up 4%)

Bedfordshire 46,059 (up 9%)

British Transport Police 57,581 (up 15%)

Cambridgeshire 66,364 (up 22%)

Cheshire 82,443 (up 36%)

City of London 5,338 (down 1%)

Cleveland 55,329 (up 9%)

Cumbria 27,046 (up 6%)

Derbyshire 55,641 (up 5%)

Devon and Cornwall 100,637 (up 23%)

Dorset 48,717 (up 11%)

Durham 60,541 (up 40%)

Dyfed-Powys 25,114 (up 10%)

Essex 130,757 (up 11%)

Gloucestershire 34,261 (up 15%)

Greater Manchester 335,488 (up 37%)

Gwent 46,903 (up 19%)

Hampshire 160,808 (up 12%)

Hertfordshire 81,958 (up 16%)

Humberside 85,518 (up 15%)

Kent 167,340 (up 33%)

Lancashire 120,212 (up 15%)

Leicestershire 79,250 (up 21%)

Lincolnshire 40,597 (up 10%)

Merseyside 122,165 (up 14%)

Metropolitan Police 809,049 (up 7%)

Norfolk 55,643 (up 14%)

North Wales 48,022 (up 18%)

North Yorkshire 38,478 (up 5%)

Northamptonshire 55,047 (up 4%)

Northumbria 149,023 (up 26%)

Nottinghamshire 93,800 (up 24%)

South Wales 105,667 (up 9%)

South Yorkshire 144,980 (up 30%)

Staffordshire 83,747 (up 11%)

Suffolk 52,524 (up 19%)

Surrey 72,897 (up 20%)

Sussex 113,079 (up 11%)

Thames Valley 148,173 (up 10%)

Warwickshire 41,804 (up 18%)

West Mercia 85,790 (up 9%)

West Midlands 227,865 (up 13%)

West Yorkshire 260,024 (up 13%)

Wiltshire 44,043 (up 8%)