Hate crime in England, Wales rises for first time in 3 yrs: official figures

LONDON - The number of hate crimes in England and Wales has risen for the first time in three years, including increases in race and religiously motivated offenses, Britain's Home Office figures showed on Thursday.

There were nearly 116,000 hate crime offenses in the year ending March, up 2 percent from more than 113,100 the previous year, according to the Home Office.

Notably, religious hate crimes targeted at Muslims rose by 19 percent, with an increase following the Southport attacks and riots last summer, the data showed.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said Muslim and Jewish communities "continue to experience unacceptable levels of often violent hate crime."

"Today's hate crime statistics show that too many people are living in fear because of who they are, what they believe, or where they come from," she said.

Last week, two Jewish people were killed in the Manchester synagogue attack. The suspect, believed to be a British citizen of Syrian descent, drove a car into worshippers, then attacked with a knife while wearing a fake suicide vest. He was shot dead at the scene by the police.