Security measures will be tightened in shopping centres across the country, Business Against Crime (BAC) said in Illovo on Thursday.

BAC's Jenni Irish-Qhobosheane said the prevalence of violent crimes in shopping centres was of serious concern for the government, the business sector and the law abiding citizens of the country.

She said this had led to an establishment of a shopping centre security initiative.

The initiative provided centres with an early warning system which would assist them in identifying the immediate risk.

"The initiative is more on how to prevent the occurrence of the violent crimes than to deal with them," said Irish-Qhobosheane.

She said since the establishment of the initiative late last year, there had been a 30 percent decrease in violent shopping centre crimes.

Sapa