Bucharest 5th most unsafe city in Europe

Luni, 3 noiembrie 2008, 3:53 English | Bucharest

Bucharest comes 5th in a list of most unsafe cities in Europe, published by the EC statistics institute, Eurostat, quoted by Romanian monitoring agency Rador. The study took into account the citizens' safety perceptions and revealed that those residing in Bucharest fear most the downtown area than other areas considered dangerous. 

The top of the list is taken by Istanbul, followed by Naples, Sophia and Athens. According to Eurostat, the safest cities are Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Helsinki. If several years ago Bucharest was one of the safest cities, now the reverse is true.

In Bucharest, 1 of 3 residents declared that they never or very rarely feel safe especially in the central area where luxurious residential centers are found. Romanian Police spokesperson Christian Ciocan declared, for Radio Romania Actualitati that the number of felonies dropped in the last year and Bucharest cannot be considered an unsafe city.