CHINESE police claim to have cracked down on a series of attacks by armed bandits on the Trans-Siberian railway.
A spokesman for the Public Security Ministry in Beijing yesterday acknowledged there had been many cases of rape, assault and robbery on the Beijing-to-Moscow train over the past six months, but said the problem had been resolved.
''Apart from some minor incidents, the situation has been relatively quiet for the last two months,'' she said.
''The gangs involved have now basically been smashed.'' The spokesman declined to say how many people had been arrested in connection with the attacks, but an official at the Russian Embassy in Beijing said numerous Chinese had been arrested in the mainland and four people had been detained in Russia.
The Russian official also claimed the problem had been resolved, but according to two independent sources the attacks by gangs of Russian and Chinese bandits are still continuing on both sides of the border.
In one incident last month, a gang of mainly Russian bandits armed with guns and knives rampaged through a train, raping women passengers and stealing jewellery and other belongings, one source said.
The attack, inside the Russian border near Lake Baikal, lasted several hours with the train's security forces and police unable to do anything.