Figures released by Thames Valley Police this morning have revealed that the number of reported homicides in the region leapt from eight in 2014/15 to 18 in 2015/16.

Of those reported between April 1, 2015 and March 31, 2016, a total of 16 had been looked into or acted on by police.

The force's annual crime summary also noted an overall increase in crime, with the total number of reported crimes across the region - excluding fraud - coming in at 129,611, up by almost 9,000 incidents on the previous year's 120,948.

Victim-based crime across the board also jumped from 108,434 reports the previous year to 117,119.

Reported sexual offences were up to 4,263, higher than the previous year's 3,512, and reported rapes increased by more than 400 from 1,077 to 1,479.

At the same time, however, burglaries fell from 11,374 to 11,035 and drug offences dropped from 5,921 to 5,081.