Global Terrorism: Less than 1% of victims killed in Western Europe

A total of 269 people were killed in attacks in the region in 2016 – compared with 19,121 in the Middle East and North Africa

Iraqi security forces and civilians gather at the site after a car bomb hit Karada, a busy shopping district in the center of Baghdad, Iraq in June 2016 (AP)

Terror attacks in Western Europe accounted for less than 1 per cent of all the people killed in global terror incidents in 2016, new figures show.

A new study of data from the Global Terrorism Database project, run by the University of Maryland, found that 238 – or 0.7 per cent – of the 34,676 people killed in attacks over the past year died during attacks on Western Europe, including in France, Germany and the UK.

In total, there were 269 attacks – including major incidents in Brussels and Nice – out of a total of 13,488 attacks.

By contrast, 55 per cent – 19,121 people – of all global terror victims died in attacks carried out in the Middle East and North Africa.

Iraq alone saw nine of the 11 deadliest attacks in 2016, predominantly targeting the Shia sect, as Isis was forced to retreat from territories it seized in the north of the country in 2014.

One attack, which saw an explosives-laden truck detonated outside a shopping centre in the suburb of Karrada in Baghdad, killed at least 382 people.

The report also found the overall number of terrorist incidents worldwide had declined by 9 per cent, and by 20 per cent in Western Europe, though it was up by 14 per cent in North America as a result of the Pulse nightclub shooting – which was the deadliest single attack on the LGBTQ community in US history.

The research also recorded other less high profile incidents, such as smaller attacks on mosques and synagogues, and was not exclusively focused on Islamist extremism.

The report also noted a huge spike in the use of vehicles such as vans and lorries as weapons in crowd-ramming attacks, such as the Nice attack on Bastille Day in July 2015 when 84 people were killed, and an attack on a Berlin Christmas market which killed 12.

The figures, for 2016, do not include recent attacks including in London, Manchester and Barcelona.