Enfield police are winning the fight against crime, new statistics show.

Overall crime has dropped by six per cent over the past year with 1,867 fewer victims than in April 2003/4 according to Metropolitan Police figures.

Rape is down by 11 per cent, gun crime 14 per cent, burglary 14 per cent, robbery six per cent and vehicle theft four per cent.

The news is encouraging for the borough's police chiefs in a year where a series of brutal crimes such as the murder of a Bowes Park shopkeeper and a stabbing spree which left one dead and five others injured, rocked communities.

Supt Dave Reed said Enfield police were not about to rest on their laurels.

He said: "Reducing crime by a certain amount isn't enough. We have to build on this further so the people of Enfield can feel increased confidence in what we are doing."

Supt Reed said Safer Neighbourhoods Teams had helped to reduce street crime and building on that success would boost results.

Shared intelligence, working with partners such as Enfield Council and its trading standards department would also prove effective, he added.

Despite a general fall in crime, murder has risen in Enfield by a massive 100 per cent, domestic violence 16 per cent and violent crime one per cent.

Supt Reed said the murders which took place in Enfield last year were an "unfortunate sequence of events".

He said: "We are looking carefully at the murders which occurred but we don't see a link between the offences that have taken place, what we are looking at is the underlying theme."

But Kevin Tipple Chairman of Bowes Park Community Association said: "People's perception of anti-sociial crime is still on the increase especially around the North Circular Road.

"We lost our community police officer in Bowes Park last year and we are still awaiting a new one.

"There needs to be a greater police presence in the area and reassurance."