Police in south China have seized 105.5 million yuan (13.4 million U.S. dollars) of counterfeit banknotes and arrested eight people.

A statement from police in Heyuan city, Guangdong province, said all the banknotes had a face value of 100 yuan (12.7 U.S. dollars).

The police also seized a series of minting facilities, including 31 fake banknote negatives at a local plastics manufacturing company and a hotel room.

The police said the notes might have flowed into market and disturbed the financial order in another three days.

Ye Yingnan, director of the anti-counterfeiting office of the State Council, said in May last year that law enforcement officials confiscated counterfeit banknotes with a face value of 1.16 billion yuan (147.8 million U.S. dollars) in 2004.

Ye, also director of the finance bureau at People's Bank of China, said more than half of the notes were produced in Guangdong.

Source: Xinhua