Nearly 16,000 replica guns nestling in two containers about to be shipped abroad have been intercepted by Shanghai Yangshan Customs.

The replica guns were the same size as real guns and weighed the same. They even had metallic gun tubes.

Customs officers also found in the two 40-foot-wide containers 110,000 Viagra pills, 168 packages of cosmetics, 327 boxes of toys and 400 strollers, none of which had been reported to Customs.

The containers belonged to an international freight company which had listed kitbags and headwear as their contents.

The production and sale of replica guns is banned by Chinese law. Companies which produce and sell such material are subject to fines of up to five times sales revenue and can lose their business permit.

(Xinhua News Agency December 12, 2006)