Chinese police confiscated thousands of firearms, tonnes of explosives and hundreds of hand grenades in a crackdown on illegal weapons conducted over the past two months, state media said Tuesday.
The crackdown, launched in early June, led to the seizure of 5,500 rifles and automatic guns, some of military origin, in southwest China's Sichuan province alone, the Xinhua news agency reported.
Police also confiscated 2.5 tonnes of explosives, 100,000 detonators and over 200 hand grenades in Sichuan, according to the agency.
Smaller caches of illegal weapons were confiscated in Jilin and Liaoning provinces, both in the country's northeast, Xinhua said.
The agency added that the number of crimes involving firearms had been declining steadily since 2001 because of repeated campaigns to crack down on illegal weapons, but provided no figures to back up the claim.
