Eleven people have been detained and 108 replica guns seized by Shanghai police after an investigation into online sales across the country.

Almost half of the weapons were capable of causing injury, police said.

On March 23, police apprehended a man who had nine replica guns in his car, seven of which were capable of causing injury.

The man, surnamed Zhao, said the guns were all bought via a website at prices ranging from 600 to 1,500 yuan (US$95-US$240).

An investigation into the website revealed details of a deal to be done on March 27 on Xizang Road S. Officers from Xuhui District staked out the spot and caught a man surnamed Bao with an imitation MP7 submachine gun and accessories that included a magazine, gun sight and silencer.

Bao confessed to other online deals and said there was another gun hidden in his residence. The two guns Bao owned were both capable of causing injury at close range, police said.

Police found that the website, with an IP address in Hong Kong, involved 20 dealers and had some 90,000 members registered nationwide. Prospective customers paid 20 yuan per person to be a member and VIP membership was available at higher prices.

A section for secondhand replica gun deals required a payment of 100 yuan every three months where sales information could be published.

A total of more than 4.6 million postings were recorded on the platform.

On April 8, police caught two dealers, surnamed Guo and Zhou, in Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces.

Zhou bought replica guns in Hong Kong and elsewhere and brought them to the mainland to sell via the website, police said.

Two people who ran the website, surnamed Li and Yu, were caught on April 10 and 11 in Heilongjiang Province and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Some external hard drives, cellphones, USB flash drives and bank cards involved in this case were seized at the scene.

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