BURGLARIES are significantly up (though crime in general is slightly down) new Interior Ministry figures show. 

There were 3,533,256 crimes last year, a drop of 0.34%, said Interior Minister Claude Guéant – however burglaries were up 16%. 

Mr Guéant blamed the rise in break-ins on a “new phenomenon that is very hard to combat, which is raids by people from central and eastern Europe who go from one country to another very rapidly”. 

He added the good overall figures – which represent the ninth successive drop – are directly comparable to previous years’ because the same way of presenting the figures has been used since 1972. 

“This will doubtless be the last time I do it this way, because we can move towards a more modern system, but doesn’t alter the fact that what I am presenting is rigorously precise,” he said.