A total of 5.9 million crimes were registered with the police in 2010, down two percent from 2009, while the rate of crimes solved also hit a record high of 56 percent, the interior ministry said.

Despite a nine-percent drop in violent crimes committed by 14 to 18-year-olds, Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich warned against complacency following a string of high-profile recent incidents in Berlin and Munich.

“Between 1993 and 2008 youth violent crime doubled, so the falls seen in the past two years are coming down from a high level,” he said in a statement.

East and West Germany became one country in 1990 and combined crime statistics began being compiled three years later.

AFP/bk