Fewer murders in the Netherlands but gangland killings rise

In total, 110 people were murdered in the Netherlands last year, a drop of 10 on 2015 and less than half the number unlawfully killed in 200, national statistics office CBS said on Friday.

Of the dead last year, 76 were men. The CBS figures also show that 25% of the men murdered over the past five years – 109 out of 459 – died in gang-related violence, mostly connected to drugs.

Men were more likely to be killed by gunfire – 40% – while one in four was stabbed to death. Women are most likely to be stabbed or strangled, the CBS said.

At the end of last year the AD, which keeps an annual murder monitor, said Amsterdam was once again the murder capital of the Netherlands in 2016, with 22 violent deaths, many of which were gang-related.

In Rotterdam there were eight murders and in The Hague, just four. Most murders (34%) took place within families and there were no sex-related murders at all.