One suicide in every 40 seconds

GENEVA, Sept 09 (AFP): Nearly 800,000 people commit suicide each year - more than those killed by war and homicide or breast cancer, the World Health Organization said Monday, urging action to avert the tragedies.

In a fresh report, the UN health agency said that the global suicide rate had fallen somewhat between 2010 and 2016, but the number of deaths has remained stable because of a growing global population.

"Despite progress, one person still dies every 40 seconds from suicide," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement, insisting that "every death is a tragedy for family, friends and colleagues."

The global suicide rate in 2016 - the last year for which data was available - stood at 10.5 per 100,000 people.

But rates varied widely, with suicides in some countries as low as five per 100,000, while Guyana, which topped the scales, registered a rate of over 30 per 100,000.