A total of 414 police on the Chinese mainland died on duty in 2005, while 4,134 others were injured, most of whom were victims of violent conflicts or heavy workload, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

"Many young police were dead for working overtime, with the average age of the police dead on duty standing at 44.8," said Fan Jingyu, deputy head of personnel department of the ministry at a press conference held Thursday.

Among the 154 police killed by overtime working, 115 died of cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attack, cerebral haemorrhage, and thrombus, according to police statistics.

Fan said with China's fast-growing economic development, various kinds of crimes are also on the rise due to social conflicts and other reasons, adding that the police are understaffed to deal with the heavy workload.

In Beijing, grassroots police have to work 20 hours overtime each week, with riot squad working 50 hours overtime, Fan said.

"Many of them felt exhausted for work and were working with poor health condition," Fan said.

A health check in Yiyang police bureau in central Hunan province found 67 percent of the 2,760-strong police staff were in poor health condition, 572 of whom were serious ill and another 30 ones were living with cancer.

More than 400 police were killed every year in the country since 1995, Fan said, adding that growing violent crimes and insufficient police equipments were other important causes leading to the rising death rate.

According to police statistics, 6,819 Chinese police died on duty during the 1990-2005 period, a sharp rise compared with the figure of 1,026 in the 32 years from 1949 to 1980.

Fan said, however, the police dead on duty last year were 15.9 percent less than in 2004, thanks to intensive self-defense training and increased funds for improving weapons and equipments.

The figures of police dead and injured on duty stood at 492 and 7,032, respectively, in 2004.

Earlier this month, the ministry has announced a plan to recruit more police to work in the grassroots units, so as to raise the percentage of grassroots police from 50 percent to 85 percent among the total.

Fan said the ministry will soon draw up holiday-leave scheme for the police and launch annual health check-up program, in addition to psychological treatment service to relieve the police's work stress.

(Xinhua News Agency February 23, 2006)