Washington, Dec 21 (IANS): At least 16 US cities, including Houston and Oakland, have witnessed record homicides this year, according to a media report.

Among these cities, Philadelphia in Pennsylvania has logged at least 524 homicides so far this year, breaking the previous record of 500 set in 1990, Xinhua news agency quoted the Fox News report citing police officials as saying.

Philadelphia was followed by Indianapolis in Indiana, with at least 258 homicides, and Louisville in Kentucky, with 179.

Besides Houston (Texas) and Oakland (California), Greensboro in North Carolina has also registered near-record homicides.

According to the Fox News report, it is a trend police departments have noted from East Coast to West, even as other violent crimes such as aggravated assault and non-violent crimes such as burglary decline in the same areas.

Experts initially linked the rising violent crime in 2020 with the Covid-19 pandemic, but when the deadly violence has persisted into 2021, they are looking deeper, Lisa Dadio, a former officer of the New Haven Police Department, was quoted as saying in the report.

The areas where a lot of violent crime is rising "tend to be pretty sequestered to a particular part" of a city, where neighbourhood conflict is more frequent and often "has to do with narcotics", Dadio said.