Killings hit record high in 2021 as post-lockdown stress grew - UN

FILE PHOTO: Police secure the scene of a mass shooting at a rail yard run by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority in San Jose, California, U.S. May 26, 2021. REUTERS/Peter DaSilva/File Photo

VIENNA (Reuters) - The number of murders and other intentional killings surged to a record high across the world in 2021, driven in part by the stress and economic pressures of COVID-19 lockdowns, a U.N. report said on Friday.

Around 458,000 people were killed intentionally, higher than the 400,000 to 450,000 recorded every year since researchers started collating the data in 2000, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Global Study on Homicide said.