Nearly 44.7 percent of criminal suspects detained by Chinese police in the first half of this year were juvenile with age ranging from 10 to 25, Wu Heping, spokesman for the Ministry of Public Security, said on Thursday.

Suspects in more than 70 percent of robbery cases were juvenile of this age, Wu said.

Robbery, theft and assault were the major crimes committed by young offenders. More than 85 percent of juvenile with age of 16 or 17 were involved in those cases.

Meanwhile, Wu said, the number of criminal cases by dint of high-tech was on rise. During the first six months of 2005, Chinese police authorities cracked down on 2,170 online crimes and arrested 2,324 criminal suspects.

Source: Xinhua