Beijing June 26 -- Some 10,000 people marched through Beijing's streets Sunday to support China's anti-drug day, as the nation burned illegal caches of heroin, hash and other drugs seized by police, an official and state media said.

    Chinese volunteers brave the rain to march against drugs in honor of anti drug day in Beijing, China Sunday, June 26, 2005. Government said 10,000 people took part in the march in the city's northwest. [AP]

    China Central Television showed police in several cities setting fire to large urns filled with drugs, including a cache of 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million) worth of narcotics in the southern city of Nanchang.

    Marchers in Beijing wore matching white visors and pastel-colored raincoats and chanted slogans as they marched about 20 kilometers (12 miles) through a morning downpour from the Summer Palace in the city's northwest into the center of Beijing.

    About 10,000 were estimated to have taken part, said a female official with the Information Office of the Beijing Anti-Narcotics Office reached by phone who would only give her surname, Zhong.

    Anti-drug day is part of a renewed official crackdown on the illegal drug trade.

    There were some 791,000 known drug addicts in China at the end of last year, according to the Chinese government.

    (Source: China Daily)