Belgium saw an increase in knife crime in 2018, according to figures released by the Minister of the Interior Pieter De Crem (CD&V).
The federal and local police counted a total of 657 fights involving knives across the country in 2018, against 626 in 2017.
This means that there were 12 knife fights each week in Belgium in 2018.
The brawls involving knives particularly broke out in Flanders, where 286 incidents took place in 2018. In Wallonia, there were 221 instances and in the Brussels-Capital Region, there were 150, writes Le Soir.
These statistics include all instances of assault involving knives, including stabbings and murder, La Capitale explains.
Evie McCullough
The Brussels Times
