Over 26,000 probed for duty-related crimes in China

China's prosecuting authorities investigated 26,523 people suspected of duty-related crimes in the first five months of this year, including seven officials at the ministerial level.

The persons subjected to inquiry include 1,577 officials at or above county levels, Xinhua quoted Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) as saying Thursday.

The figure is 33 percent more than last year, when China's new leadership launched the sweeping anti-graft battle to trap "tigers" and "flies", the report said.

The number of people investigated for offering and taking bribes increased by seven percent.

Earlier, prosecutors punished 69 officials involved in an election fraud in central China's Hengyang city.

They also investigated 397 suspects for possible criminality behind major accidents, including a tanker explosion in northwest China's Shanxi Province that killed at least 31 people.

The SPP helped police arrest 264 duty-crime suspects in the first five months of this year.

The SPP is China's highest state legal supervision which leads the People's Procuratorate and the local People's Procuratorate to perform its specialised function of legal supervision.