Fighting crime must be a regular task of the Party committee, authorities and socio-political organisations of Hanoi, the site with the second highest number of criminal cases in the country.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc made the emphasis at his working session with Hanoi’s authorities on the prevention of crime and law violations on October 21.

According to Deputy Minister of Public Security Sen. Lieut. Gen. Le Quy Vuong, criminal cases in Hanoi accounted for 9.5 percent of the country’s total criminal cases, only after Ho Chi Minh City (10.5 percent).

Deputy PM Phuc asked the municipal authorities to take stronger measures to fight and prevent criminal offenses to ensure safety for citizens.

The communal and district-level police chiefs must be responsible for the occurrence of crime in their neighborhood and will be prosecuted if they give a cover-up, the government leader said.

Hanoi needs to pay due attention to the prevention work as well as the coordination between relevant forces with the mass organisations in the fight, Phuc noted.

Director of Hanoi Police Nguyen Duc Chung reported that in the first ten months of this year, the municipal police brought to light 4,500 criminal offenses including those relating to 485 offenses committed in 2012.

The increasing unemployment and debt-ridden difficulties were the major causes behind an increase in criminal offenses, which happened mainly in the city’s outlying districts.-VNA