Beijing residents given deadline for handing in guns

BEIJING, July 5 (Reuters) Beijing has set a deadline for its citizens to hand over illegal firearms as part of a wider crackdown on a small but thriving gun trade, state media reported today.

Those people living in the capital who did not turn over their weapons by July 15 could face two years' jail, the China Daily newspaper quoted Beijing's Public Security Bureau as saying.

Even toy guns were not immune to the crackdown because they could ''cause human injuries'', Qian Jin, a police official, told the paper.

''Such guns may cause unnecessary nervousness among the public,'' he was quoted as saying.

Police last month said a crime wave in poorer parts of China was being fuelled by the illegal manufacture and sale of weapons.

Guns are commonly made by farmers using basic tools and knowledge passed down through generations.

''The money is a huge temptation for farmers with yearly incomes of less than 1,000 yuan (US5),'' Xu Hu, a police official, told the paper.

REUTERS SK VV1300