Top 10 Most Dangerous Cities In Europe

Ever since the Renaissance, Europe is considered the right path for the world's civilization. At least it was what has been the presumption of the society there and other people across the globe. If we were to look at the numbers, it is definitely true.

Even though Europe is the third richest continent after America and Asia, it is without a doubt the most advanced, healthy, and educated continent among the rest. Therefore the European should definitely be proud of their country.

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However, not everything is as it seems especially after the Ukraine-Russia crisis starts to become rampant in February 2022. The western media is full of narrative stories regarding these important issues, but we must look back at the history of the crimes occurring in Europe.

In Manx (Europe), a 63-year-old man has been convicted of sexual crimes for keeping 153,000 kids imageries. Whereas in Italy, anti-vax were seen wearing fake arms for the sake of refusing the vaccine their body but yet the vaccination certificate was still demanded by them.

This just shows that no matter how educated one can be, it does not guarantee the person to be civilized. Due to that, The Numbeo Crime Index did not simply exempt European from their list and we can see the cities in Europe with some of the highest crime rates.

Nevertheless, the evaluation of this index is not entirely accurate especially if it was to be compared with the official review from the government. This is because the evaluation is only made from the feedback of limited respondents which comprises only the public who actually accessed their website.

But then, this index is suitable to be used as a comparison between the cities in various countries. Here we would like to share with you the top 10 most dangerous cities in Europe based on the Numbeo Crime Index.

10. Malmö, Sweden

Malmö is the third biggest city in Sweden after Stockholm and Gothenburg. The city has a coverage area of 155.5 square km with a population of 344,166 people. However, for every 100,000 people, it has been reported that 1.4 of them will be shot dead each year.

This made the crime index value of the city to be 56.75 sitting at 98th place compared to Indianapolis (57.58) and Manchester (56.03).

Shooting on sight and explosion are the two common things that usually happen here and if we were to look at the past data in 2017, there have been 65 shootings and 62 explosion incidents occurring. In 2019, there were 59 shootings and 29 explosions whereas, in 2020, there were 20 shootings and 17 explosions.

These incidents did not only involve the immigrants of the county due to the diversity of the city but also involved the locals themselves. For instance, on 22 March ago, an 18-year-old student stabbed two teachers to death in Malmö Latinskola. If we were to look back at the stories, these are some usual events that happen there.

In memory of the 15-year-old teen being shot dead in November 2019 (Credit)

To make matters worst in 2019, a shooting event occurred right in front of a pizza shop. Another incident of a woman being shot dead while carrying her child outside her house just occurred recently before on top of a car being bombed right on the streets. To this day justice has still not been served regarding this case.

Based on a study, the chances of an individual aged 15-29 years in Sweden being shot dead is very high which is 10 times it happening in Germany. Reports also suggest that 8 out of 10 cases happening involved gangsters on the streets.

9. Naples, Italy

Naples is the capital of Campania which is the third-largest city in Italy after Rome and Milan. Similar to Malmö, Naples is also crawling with mafias and gangsters which are commonly known as Camorra. Last year alone, there was news regarding the capture of the leader of Camorra in Naples named Maria Licciardi.

However, the gangster in Naples might not be as vicious as the ones in Malmö which mean there were not many shooting or bombing incidents happening. Regardless of that, it does not mean that such incidents do not occur at all.

In October 2021, an 18-year-old teenager was shot dead by two men in North Naples Park. Later in January, a senior citizen pointed a gun toward the security guards at McDonald's refusing to show their vaccination certificate.

With regards to guns, Naples is more well known for heists, pickpockets, robbery, and tourist scams. Yet these are some of the most common crimes in a very big city for tourists. Naples is of course one of Italy's historic places aside from Rome to the extent that it was called Paris of the south.

Maria Licciardi (Credit)

The crimes definitely affect the city's reputation among tourists. For instance, in 2015, there were a lot of snatches and grabs happening and one in particular involved a watch worth €35,000 owned by one of the Brits.

If we were to look at Statista, Naples is the city with the highest robbery rate in Italy sitting at 95.3 per 100,000 people compared to Prato(84.8) and Milan(78.3). On top of that, Statista also shows how many people were murdered in Naples from August 2020 until July 2021 as many as 276 deaths equivalent to 1.3 cases each day.

This put the crime index value at 58.52 (90th place) comparable with San Francisco (58.59) and Noida (57.97).

8. Nice, France

Nice city might be known for the incident on 14 July 2016. It involves a 19-tonne lorry that crashed against the many people on Promenade in Anglais during the Bastille Day celebration. Around 30,000 people were gathered there in which 86 of them lost their lives.

To this day as many as 300 children have to go through many treatments due to the trauma that they experienced from such an unfortunate event by the religious extremist. To make things worse a similar incident occurred two years later and this time the church was the primary target.

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3 men were stabbed to death while the perpetrator was also shot on the scene and arrested. This has led the city council to install more than 2200 CCTVs across the whole city to monitor for any potential crimes.

This initiative was simply not enough to put an end to the city's bad reputation. The crime index of Nice is 58.85(86th place) compared to Nairobi, Kenya (58.94). According to the Numbeo data, the most gruesome crimes to happen in Nice will be housebreaking, vandalism, and car theft.

Teleport on the other hand reported that of 100 citizens of Nice, 31 of them will own firearms. Crimes related to weaponry are at the ratio of 2.83 for every 100,000 people. In the past January, another shooting incident also occurred as it involved the Brigade de recherché who wrongly shot another 22-year-old man in a car theft incident.

The lorry that crash the people in 2016 (Credit)

Cases involving tourists have also happened before as in 2016, 2 local men were caught raping two British tourists at the same place where the crash incident took place. All these events combined have made Nice appear as one of the most dangerous cities in France.

7. Minsk, Belarus

Being one of the East European cities on this list, the situation in Minsk is rather different. The dangerous factor of this city is mostly contributed to the instability of the politics, especially after the election in 2020.

You can just imagine that in just 9 - 13 August alone, the police arrested 7,000 people in the demonstration against the government. Things were definitely out of hand as the officers were brutally assaulted and to some extent even raped.

The same fate also happened to the media in which during the same year 480 arrests were made. 62 of them were believed to have been abused and in Minsk, there were 3 incidents where the journalists were shot using rubber bullets.

Later in September, another interesting thing happened when an IT worker was found shot dead. In this case, it was the KGB who was behind it as an operation to remove any anti-government doctrine out there that involved the arrest of 50 other people. All of them were charged guilty of insulting President Lukashenko. 

Lukashenko has been in power for a very long time since 1994. But every year, it seems that violence and aggression are considered a norm that frequently happens all around. For instance, in 2011, a bomb with the strength of 5kg TNT exploded in the Oktyabrskaya metro station which was only 100 meters from the president's office.

Infographics related to the explosion in the metro in 2011 (Credit)

Around 204 people experienced casualties while 12 people were found dead. The culprit was believed to have come from the radical factions and the person also confessed to committing the same crime at Vitebsk(2005) and Minsk(2008) injuring 50 people.

Nevertheless aside from the politics, the crimes in Minsk are also relatively high. In 2011, there were 1,394 crimes reported for every 100,000 people (139 per 10,000). The statistic for Minks far exceeds the international average which is 172.

This is by far much higher than Vitebsk (140) and Grodno (111). It definitely makes sense that the crime index value in Minsk is 59.85 (82nd place) comparable to Delhi (59.31).

6. Nantes, France

Another city of France on this list and if Minsk has dwelled with radical politics, Nantes however is targeted by religious extremists, something that is far too common in France. If we were to look back at the incident in December 2014, a driver crashed into the people on the streets at a Christmas market in Nantes while chanting their religious beliefs.

10 people were injured and it was a similar case that happened in Dijon which caused 13 casualties. Later in August 2021, another thing happened when a priest was murdered by the same person who burned down a church in the past July. It all occurred 3 months after a policewoman was stabbed by an ex-convict.

Two other policemen were also shot by a stolen firearm. To catch a single culprit, 200 officers were put into play with a helicopter, and all schools and shops nearby were ordered to be closed.

Aside from these attacks, Nantes is also known for sexual harassment, and one of the cases involved a serial harasser that mostly targets teenage girls aged 10 -16 years old. This has gone on for many years until now and sadly there were no statistics to prove that it actually happens.

Regardless, the Numbeo Crime Index has put Nantes as the second most dangerous city in France after Marseille. The city's index is 60.06 (80th place) comparable with Brasilia (60.23).

5. Catania, Italy

Unlike in Naples, the group of gangsters in Catania is considered more aggressive and brutal. This is because of the known status of the port city in Sicily. Drug cartels in this region are very rampant not to mention the fight between the mafia groups that constantly occur.

For example in August 2020, mass shootings happened between two mafia clans (Cursoti Milanesi and Capello) in the middle of Librino city. Two lives were lost in the battle and luckily the civilians were left unharmed.

In 2016, 500 police officers went on a battle against the Laudani clan which resulted in 80 of them being arrested. A bigger operation occurred in 2020 when 12 drug markets in Catania were hit and closed down.

No further reports were able to be identified to see how the operation was conducted. The statistics relating to the mafia in Catania have been proven difficult to be obtained. At the very least, there has been a story about Maurizio Avola, a mafia from Catania that has murdered 79 people in just 11 years.

Maurizio Avola (Credit)

Aside from mafia aggression, sexual attack toward underaged girls in this city is also high. There have been as many as 5,990 cases happening in 2018 alone which is 3% higher than the previous year.

One of the cases that happened was in March 2019 which involved a 19-year-old American kid being raped in a very quiet alley. Two years before that, a priest was caught sexually harassing a 14-year-old kid.

Similar to February ago a coach was arrested for sexually abusing his athletes while promising them a bright future at the national level. As the most notorious city in Italy, Catania is also at risk for many types of attacks and thefts.

One very critical incident that cannot be forgotten is May 2018 which involves the Catania Ultras Football team that attacked the locals due to a misunderstanding of them being the opposite fan. Many cars were burnt while others were beaten up badly at the train station.

These events have made Catania become the most dangerous city in Italy with a crime index of 60.36 (78th place) comparable with Ghaziabad, India (60.66).

4. Birmingham, UK

Maybe not many know that Birmingham is the birth city of Cadbury. Not just that it is also the second biggest city in the UK after London but at the same time it is also the most dangerous one yet. In fact, it is far more dangerous than West Midlands.

The crime rate in 2021 is at a ratio of 50 per 1,000 people and in that same year, there have been 642 cases of theft and a whopping 28,513 cases of sexual assault. If we were to look at the news portal, there were also lots of shooting cases going on.

For instance, in February 2020, a 44-year-old man shot down his own mother and also injured two other women while fighting at a motorcycle club premises. Two days later, another shooting incident occurred involving a gangster letting off three shots while arguing about the sale of drugs.

The pub was bombed in 1974 (Credit)

There were also many other shooting cases happening later on in this city and while other cities on this list mostly involve gangsters on the street, Birmingham however is not. As stated previously the number of sexual harassment cases is absurdly high in which you can expect cases like rape to happen all over again.

All these crimes have made Birmingham seen as a very dangerous city to the extent that Numbeo has rated it as the third most dangerous city in the UK with a crime index value of 61.53 (69th place) comparable with Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (60.80).

3. Marseille, France

Religious extremists and gangsters are two common problems flooding this port city, Marseille. To make things worst, the poverty rate in this city has caused the crime rates to be on the rise. Almost half of the people living in Félix Pyat live very poorly (€989 a month; when the cost of living for a family with 4 children is €2939)

One of the ways out of poverty will be to join the drug cartels for a chance at survival. Due to that, it is quite common to see youngsters get their hands on dirty jobs. In 2018, there have been 23 deaths related to gangsterism and the numbers quickly add up to 29 in 2019.

Some of the cases involved Rayanne, a 14-year-old teen shot dead on the streets of Les Marroniers. Two other kids were also injured on the scene and some speculated that the death was related to the drug cartels.

The reality is very bitter, especially in what happens to Fatima(not her real name) and her family. In just 1 year, she lost both her children and beloved husband due to being a target of the drug cartels as they were both smuggling drugs. The husband was found in the most gruesome way as he was shot dead until what's left is only his head.

Not just that as in 2019, the number of incidents related to anti-Semitism is 191 compared to 121 in the previous year. In Marseille alone, there have been many cases involving religious extremists.

For example in March 2021, an armed man entered a Jewish school and Kosher market in an attempt to kill. This is quite similar to the incident before in 2015 when a teacher at a Jewish school was stabbed to death by three violent men.

In April 2017, the police have arrested two armed men planning an attack several days before the election will be held. Marseille is definitely the most dangerous city to reside in as the crimes are definitely going through the roof.

The crime index value stands at 61.65 (68th place) comparable with Tripoli, Libya (62.22)

2. Coventry, UK

Coventry might be less known compared to other cities on this list. It is situated 136 km northwest of London. Two things are happening in the city of Coventry. Firstly the crime rate in this city has actually reduced to almost 50% in the past two years.

In 2020, the number of crimes reported is 29,615 whereas in 2021 the figure has gone down to 15,258. Based on CrimeRate, the main issue in Coventry is mostly aggression and sexual assault (7,305 cases in 2021). If we were to look at their news portal these are the two hot topics that are constantly being talked about.

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Secondly, most of the crimes will involve teenagers, and based on the searches regarding the latest news on crimes in Coventry will definitely come down to this conclusion. For instance, in April 2021 4 teens were caught in 40 thefts including a collection of cars worth $700,000.

In October 2021, a 19-year-old teen shot down one of the gangsters from what was believed to be their rival and had done so to other teens aged 15 years old.

Mass shootings at Coventry City Centre in 2019 (Credit)

In July 2021 however, another teenager aged 19 years old was arrested for making false threats to bomb the parking lot at a shopping mall. In March, there were also two cases of rape involving rapists aged 19 and 14 years old.

It is undeniable that there are also other cases involving those much older but in reality, these are the causes that contribute to the high crime cases in Coventry. The crime index has shot up to 28th place with an index value of 69.45, comparable with Lima, Peru (70.17) and Sao Paulo, Brazil (70.20).

1. Bradford, UK

Back in the 18th and 19th centuries, Bradford is the pioneer city of the industrial revolution to the extent that it became one of the richest cities in Europe. However, as of now, this city has also become known to be the most dangerous one yet on this continent based on the Numbeo Crime Index.

In just one year, the people of Bradford have experienced 37,100 crimes happening in their city. If the numbers were to be broken down, the cases mostly comprise 1,724 robberies, 2,448 car thefts, 4,888 damages, and buildings being burned down as well as 22,870 cases of physical and sexual assault.

The seriousness of these cases has led the government to spend half a million pounds sterling specifically to guide the teens from being involved in these crimes. This however does not include the recovery funds like developing the socioeconomic of the poor in Bradford.

Based on data, 30% of them here live in poverty. This city was also compared with other undeveloped cities like Tijuana (Mexico), San Salvador (El Salvador), and Bloemfontein (South Africa).

Source:

• Borba, Levi. (2022, 9 February). The 10 Most Dangerous Cities in Europe in 2022. Medium.

Also read: Top 5 High-Risk Jobs That Pay Well