ONLINE crimes, especially scams, in Singapore rose sharply last year and drove a "slight increase" in crime here from the year before, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a press release on Wednesday.

On top of that, the Home Team is also facing an increasing workload with the number of emergency ambulance calls rising at a pace of about 5 per cent per year for the past five years, it noted, saying that this trend would grow worse as the local population ages.

The ministry added that Singapore also continues to face various threats, the most significant being terrorism.

Besides online crimes, nearly all other types of crimes registered a year-on-year decrease last year.

Violent or serious property crimes along with house-breaking and related crimes fell to their lowest levels in 20 years, and the number of unlicensed moneylending harassment cases slid to their lowest in 10 years, it said.

But the number of new drug abusers, in particular those below the age of 30 years, continued to grow and the number of arrested harbourers and employers of immigration offenders went up, the ministry said.