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Crime Reporter
More than 7,2 million cars were stolen last year in 127 countries worldwide, says the International Police. Most of the vehicles were lost through car jacking while others were stolen from parking lots. “Interpol’s Stolen Motor Vehicles (SMV) database contains more than 7,2 million records submitted by 127 member countries. There has been a large increase in the use of the SMV database in recent years – from three million searches in 2007 to more than 100 million searches this year,” Interpol said.

“We have seen a steady increase in the use of the Interpol Stolen Motor Vehicle database by member countries, both in terms of the number of records contributed and the number of searches carried out.”

The organisation said more than 125 million searches of the database were conducted last year and around 117 000 vehicles were identified as stolen.

In 2005, 3 296 263 vehicles were stolen, in 2012 there were 7 250 909, 7 097 877 in 2011, and in 2010 there were 7 156 792. Last year the figure was 7 288 741.

“Vehicle crime is a highly organised criminal activity affecting all regions of the whole world and with clear links to organised crime and terrorism.”