China police seize thousands of guns, knives

BEIJING (AFP) – Police in China have seized a huge cache of weapons, including 15,000 guns and 120,000 knives, from an illegal arms ring and detained 15 suspects, state media reported on Monday.

The weapons were confiscated after a four-month investigation, according to the state-run China Daily newspaper, which called the operation the largest-ever such seizure in China.

Police were tipped off to the arms ring’s existence after investigating a robbery in Guiyang, the capital of south-west China’s Guizhou province, the newspaper said.

They traced the source of a gun used in the robbery to a family-run “gang” in neighbouring Hunan province that advertised itself as a factory but controlled several warehouses where guns and knives were sold.