Chicago recorded the highest annual number of homicides in more than two decades, according to data released by the Chicago Police Department. 

A total of 762 homicides were recorded in the city in 2016 – more than the figures for New York and Los Angeles combined.

Chicago’s soaring rates of murder and gun crime, revealed on Monday, provoked a reaction from president-elect Donald Trump, who told the city’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, to seek federal help if he is unable to find a solution.

The president-elected tweeted: “Chicago murder rate is record setting - 4,331 shooting victims with 762 murders in 2016. If Mayor can’t do it he must ask for Federal help!”

Emanuel was Barack Obama’s first chief of staff. 

As reported in The Guardian and El País.