CRIME rose by more than 30 percent in Greater Manchester in the last 12 months.

Figures released by the ONS today show that 294,581 crimes were reported in the Greater Manchester Police area in the year ending June 2017.

This is an increase of 31 per cent from the 225,407 crimes committed in the year up to June 2016.

Nationally, there was an increase of 13 per cent in the number of crimes committed and Greater Manchester Police saw the third biggest rise of any police force, behind only Cheshire and Durham.

The type of crime that went up the most in Greater Manchester was stalking and harassment, which saw an increase of 83 percent to 15,724 incidents.

Violence against the person increased by 46 percent to 76,404 and robbery went up 53 percent to 5,401.

Greater Manchester Police has put the increase down to improvements in reporting by the force and also an increase in some types of crime.

Deputy Chief Constable, Ian Pilling, said: “In August last year GMP received an inadequate grading for crime recording and since then we have worked to change our practices and processes and are ultimately recording more crimes than we used to.

"The vast majority of these extra crimes have been for minor offences, such as low level anti social behaviour, minor public disorder or low level assaults, where the victim did not want any further police action.

"We also believe that victims of sexual offences and other serious crimes are now more confident in coming forward, knowing that we will take them seriously and do everything we can to support them. This also results in extra crimes being recorded.

“This accounts for part of the increase, but we have also seen an increase in some of the crimes happening across Greater Manchester. Our officers and staff work incredibly hard round the clock but we have 2000 fewer officers in GMP than seven years ago.

"The inevitable consequence of this is that we cannot deal with everything and we have to prioritise tackling serious crime and supporting the most vulnerable people in our communities.

“Despite these challenges we are doing all we can to protect people and help keep them safe and I am grateful for the huge public support we receive in doing this.”

Of the almost 300,000 crimes committed during the 12 month period, 120,690 of them were theft offences.

There was a 62 percent increase in homicide in the area, going up from 46 to 76.

However, the number of drug offences committed last year fell by 7 percent, from 4,588 to 4,281.