A senior Serbian police officer said on Wednesday that there were more killings in the first quarter of 2023 than in the same period a year earlier.

Criminal Police Department chief Ninoslav Cmolic said that there were 11 more murders this year than in 2022. “There were 27 murders in the first quarter of this year and all of them have been solved. There was no increase in the number of underworld killings,” Cmolic told the Serbian state TV (RTS).

He said that there were fewer robberies, burglaries and car thefts.