Baltics top EU murder rates

VILNIUS - Recently released data from Eurostat has found that Lithuania and Estonia have by far the highest murder rates in the EU. No data was available for Riga.

Statistics released Tuesday by the EU's official statistics agency placed Lithuania firmly in the lead for the most muders per population at 8.76 deaths per 100,000 people. Estonia came in second at 6.6 murders per 100,000 people.

"The figures suggest that Lithuania and Estonia have by far the highest incidence of homicides ... The only other countries reporting more than two cases a year per hundred thousand population were Finland, Bulgaria, Scotland, Romania, the Czech Republic and Ireland," Eurostat reported.

Luxembourg came in 3rd place with slightly less that 4 murders per 100,000 people.

The lowest murder rates were observed in Austria, Slovenia and Germany, all of which had less than one homicide per 100,000 of population.