The number of hate crimes reported to British police in the run up to and aftermath of the vote to leave the European Union has surged by 42 percent, police chiefs said on Friday. The official number of reported crimes echoes the 500 percent rise in the number of incidents relayed through the police online portal in the wake of the Brexit vote. There were 3,076 incidents reported to forces nationally in the two weeks from June 16, an increase of 915 offences compared to the same period last year. Police said the peak number of hate crimes occurred on June 25 when 289 incidents were reported across the United Kingdom, but there had been a marked decline since then. "We now have a clear indication of the increases in the reporting of hate crime nationally and can see that there has been a sharp rise in recent weeks," said Mark Hamilton, the National Police Chiefs' Council spokesman on hate crimes.

Source: Thanhnien News July 08, 2016 11:26 UTC