2016 terrorist attacks in Europe, visualized - INM1502 吴梓昊

Terrorism is nothing new to Europe. In 2016, terrorism in Europe killed 305 people and injured 953 people in 369 attacks, according to the University of Maryland National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism’s Global Terrorism Database, which tracks more than 170,000 foreign and domestic incidents worldwide. In comparison, attacks in 2004 caused more than 800 deaths, according to the university.

Despite fewer attacks in 2016, they were still deadly. Death toll reach peaks in March, May, June and July, with over 100 people killed in July. Here are some of the deadliest attacks which were carried out in Europe in 2016.

March 22, 2016: Suicide attacks on the Brussels airport and subway killed 32 people and injured hundreds. The perpetrators have been closely linked to the group that carried out attacks in Paris some four months earlier. The Islamic State group took the credit for the Brussels attacks and threatened other countries taking part in the anti-IS coalition.

July 14, 2016: A man driving a truck, reportedly a French citizen of Tunisian origin, ploughed into a crowd that was celebrating Bastille Day in Nice along the picturesque French Riviera, killing at least 84 and injuring hundred others. IS claimed the attack.

A blue dot for one fatal attack

July 22, 2016: An 18-year-old German-Iranian gunman who apparently acted alone opened fire in a busy shopping mall in Munich on Friday evening, killing at least nine people in the third attack against civilians in Western Europe in eight days. The pistol-wielding attacker, identified by Munich Police Chief Hubertus Andrae as a dual national, was later found dead of a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.

July 25, 2016: One person was killed and 12 others were injured at a restaurant in Ansbach, near the German city of Nuremberg in an explosion that occured late on Sunday, a police spokesman said. The spokesman said he had no immediate information on the cause of the blast,which was first reported at 10.12 pm. CET (2012 GMT).

Most of the deadliest terrorist attacks happened in Western Europe.

Building attacks and bombings are the most common method used in fatal terrorist attacks.

The United Kingdom, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Greece and France are among the countries with the most attacks, according to the database.

About this data

The data for this analysis comes from the University of Maryland National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism’s Global Terrorism Database, which tracks terrorist attacks worldwide since 1970. The university defines an attack as “the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non‐state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation.” Attacks calculated for this graphic were limited to those not classified by the university as wartime tactics.