The number of criminal cases recorded by police during the first three months of this year showed a slight decline compared with the same period in 2004, the Ministry of Public Security said yesterday.

Between January and March, public security departments recorded about 911,000 criminal cases, 5 percent less than last year, said Wang Yixing, an official with the ministry' Spokesperson's Office.

The number of serious criminal cases, such as arson, murder, rape and violent assault, fell by a much larger margin, Wang said.

The number of arson and murder cases fell 31.3 percent and 14.3 percent respectively from last year to 2,167 and 25,000 cases.

Criminal cases solved by police reached 295,000, about the same as the previous year.

In one case this March, police in south China's Guangdong Province took just 13 days to track down and arrest three suspects accused of murdering a family of five in Dongguan.

Fires and road accidents, and resulting fatalities, also showed a considerable fall.

The public security ministry's statistics showed that 730,000 fires and 117,000 road accidents were reported during the first three months, resulting in 978 and 23,000 fatalities respectively.

A fall of 10.7 percent in fire related deaths and 14.6 percent in deaths from traffic accidents.

Among the factors that led to road accidents, drink-driving and the breaking of traffic rules were to blame for 3,200 deaths, officials said.

(China Daily April 28, 2005)