The Swedish capital saw a 14 per cent increase in the number of reported rapes from January to June of 2019, compared to the same period last year.
In the first six months of 2018, 930 rape cases were reported, a number that has increased to 1,060 during the same period in the following year with there now being an average of five rapes reported in the city per day, according to a report by newspaper Mitt i Stockholm.
Local Moderate Party politician Irene Svenonius commented on the figures saying: “I look extremely seriously at all the rapes. The increase is alarming.”
This summer alone there have been several high-profile rapes in Stockholm including the rape of a woman by a taxi driver in the notorious “vulnerable area” suburb of Husby in August.
The taxi driver is said to have driven the woman to his apartment, rather than hers, and raped her before she was able to escape.
Södersjukhuset, one of the largest hospitals in Stockholm, is the only hospital to have an emergency room specifically for rape cases with around 800 individuals seeking treatment as a result of rape every year, but only around six out of ten victims report to police.
Elisabeth Svantesson, also a member of the Moderates, said that her party was in favour of stricter penalties for sex attackers and an increase in the number of police to deal with sex crimes.
In June, the Swedish government announced they would be taking steps to hire hundreds of additional police to help tackle serious sex offences against women and children and other people deemed to be particularly vulnerable.
The increase comes after figures revealed a 13 per cent increase in the number of sex offences involving children as victims in 2018 nationwide.
The report, released in January, showed that overall, rape attacks in Sweden had increased by 33 per cent in a decade.
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