Crackdown Nets Guns, Ammunition

Police have confiscated 260,000 guns and 780,000 pieces of ammunition in a nationwide crackdown on crime that began last August, an official Chinese newspaper reported Wednesday.

Private ownership of firearms is illegal in China. But the number of illegal weapons used in crimes has soared, leading authorities to step up efforts to cut down on gun smuggling and production.

Of the captured guns, 1,400 were military rifles that had fallen into the wrong hands, the Ministry of Public Security said in a report carried by the China Daily.

It said police had found 1,573 illicit gun factories or sellers and arrested some 2,000 suspects during the campaign.