Police commissioner Jean-Jacques Lemay is urging members of the public not to be unnecessarily worried about a recent spate of violent crime.

The head of the Bermuda Police Service admitted that there had been a run of serious offences in the past ten days, but said people should not draw any premature conclusions from them.

Mr. Lemay was referring to a number of violent incidents which occurred last weekend, which included a man being attacked with a baseball bat, a man stabbed on a bus, and a woman assaulted with a bottle in a nightclub. And he said while "raw'' crime statistics -- the number of reported cases -- had increased from 258 in 1983 to 564 in 1999, they did not take into consideration the population growth.

A statement from the Police said: "Violent crime figures peaked in 1997 with 644 reported incidents, and have actually begun reversing over the last two years.

"Cases of violent crime per 1,000 population were higher in 1999, with 9.1 crimes per 1,000 people, than in 1991, 7.32 crimes per 1,000 population.

"However, when the more serious violent crimes are examined and isolated from the other crimes, the number of reported cases is actually lower for the entire period 1995-1999 than the five-year period immediately preceding it.

"In other words, the majority of growth in the violent crime statistics is actually occurring in the less violent offences.'' The Bermuda Police Service recently promised to provide additional interpretation to crime figures.

Violent crime figures will become a service performance indicator through the service's recognition that serious crime is a major concern to the community.