Chongqing has become a passageway for illegal firearms trafficking through which guns can spread throughout the southwest or even the entire country unless action is taken, a senior police officer said.

Deputy director of the Chongqing criminal police squad Wu Lixun told the Chongqing Times yesterday his team had learned online and inter-provincial gun trading were on the rise.

The weapons included standard, knockoff and homemade firearms, Wu said. Wu was site director of a campaign in Chongqing, and Hunan and Guizhou provinces that discovered four arsenals and 10 gun-making dens, and detained several dozen suspects on Jan 9.