Official figures from Police Scotland have revealed a sharp rise in attempted murders, serious assaults, sexual offences and robberies between 1 April and 31 July, compared with the same period 12 months ago.

There have been 26 more victims of violent crime — up from 34 incidents in 2014 to 60 this year.

The 76.5 per cent increase accounts for offences such as serious assault and robberies, which are dealt with by CID.

Serious assaults jumped from 21 to 38 — an additional 17 victims year on year — representing a rise of over 80 per cent.

A police report to the Inverclyde Local Police and Fire Scrutiny Sub-Committee also revealed there were five attempted murders between April and July — up by four compared with 2014 — and there were a total of 12 robberies, an increase of nine.

There were also 12 more victims of sexual offences according to senior officers — up from 25 to 37.

But police say this is down to increased ‘public confidence’ in reporting sexual crimes, meaning many historical incidents are only now being reported and ‘sexting’ — the sending of explicit images — among young people.

The figures were presented to the scrutiny board at a meeting in the Council Chambers.

Senior officers said they are ‘making an impact’ reducing violent crime and have introduced ‘radical’ new measures to combat the problems.

But Councillor Stephen McCabe, who is a member of the committee, said: “These figures are very concerning and we are obviously clear in the concerns police have to put extra resources in.

“We’re comparing one quarter this year to last year, but if this was to become a trend it would be extremely worrying.” Chief superintendent Jim Downie, area commander for Inverclyde and Renfrewshire, admitted there are issues but reassured committee members that there is now a dedicated violence reduction team — led by Detective Chief Inspector Catriona Henderson — at the Greenock HQ working hard to crack down on crime.

Mr Downie said: “Some of the youngsters that have been involved in violence have not been known to us and don’t ralise the consequences of picking up a weapon.

“Parenting is important as well, because we genuinely can’t do it all ourselves.

“Inverclyde Chief Inspector Elliot Brown and his team try to put resources in the right places and the right time, but it’s difficult.” Local police say the misuse of drugs and alcohol is a major factor in crime in Inverclyde.

The number of drug-related arrests have risen by 65 per cent, from 20 to 33 year-on-year.

Councillor Jim Clocherty expressed concerns about so-called ‘legal high’ — substances available over the counter or online which police believe is a cause of violent crime.

He said: “Everything seems nice and easy then all of a sudden one weekend we seem to get three or four incidents at the one time.

“It’s as if something seems to be put in the water.

“Everything seems to be calm and then there’s a spike.” Ch Supt Downie admitted that legal highs present a ‘difficult challenge’ for police.

He said: “Youngsters hear that these substances are legal, but they don’t know what they are putting into their bodies.

“We need appropriate legislation to tackle that.

“It’s a real worry.” Local police are also clamping down on so-called ‘party houses’ and have a list of problem addresses they plan to target.

DCI Henderson, who was also at the meeting, said: “We know the clear link between drugs and violence.

“We’ve made a significant impact and significant arrests around violent offences. There’s clearly a correlation betweendrugs and violence — and alcohol.

“We went through a spate where valium was involved but in the last six months there has not been a single incident where that was a factor.

“We’re trying to clear the area of a certain strain of valium.” DCI Henderson says officers’ shifts have been changed and they are now working from 10am through to 2am seven days a week ‘tackling and reducing’ violence.

Plain-clothed officers have been redeployed back on the streets as part of an ongoing drive to make police more visible in local communities in a bid to stop incidents developing and gather intelligence on problem areas and individuals.

There is also now an additional inspector at Greenock police station whose ‘sole focus’ is on violence reduction.

Mr Downie also highlighted the ‘positive’ work being done by police locally such as reductions in domestic abuse incidents — down from 310 to 273 year on year.

Figures for shoplifting, vandalism and road traffic offences have also fallen, while common assaults dropped by 24 from 204 to 180.

Ch Supt Downie said: “Serious assaults, robberies and common assaults — our detection rate with these crimes is still first class.”