Police say County Durham is still one of the safest places in the country after releasing crime figures showing another drop in recorded offences.

Total crime in the county from April last year to the end of March was 47,115, more than 1,300 less than in the same period in 2003 to 2004 - but violent crime has risen by 5.7 per cent.

The force says that thefts fell by almost 17 per cent, house burglaries by more than 13 per cent, drug offences by nearly 12 per cent and robberies by about 33 per cent.

It says there were big overall crime reductions in some towns where, the force says, there have been "traditionally higher levels of offending''. In Darlington crime fell by more than 11 per cent, in Durham it dropped by more than two per cent and in Peterlee the fall was just under four per cent.

Chief Constable Paul Garvin said: "While we have seen a drop of almost three per cent in crime totals, there has been a 5.7 per cent rise in violent crime.

"Much of this increase is the result of police encouragement to victims to report particular types of this crime, including domestic violence and race-hate offences.

"However we still have the lowest level of violent crime per head of population in the North-East and certainly one of the lowest in the country.'' He added that surveys showed a "feelgood factor'' following the launch a year ago of the force's StreetSafe initiative, which is designed to tackle anti-social behaviour and low-level offences.

Recorded crime has fallen by a quarter over the past ten years from an all-time high of more than 62,000 offences in the mid-1990s.