Beijing police has seized in a single day 110 scalpers who illegally sold Olympics tickets at competition venues, according to media reports.

About 340 Olympics tickets were found to be sold through illegal trading by scalpers on Friday, including 17 foreigner nationals, the Legal Daily reports.

The crackdown was launched after police received complaints from the public on many occasions during their patrol around the Olympic venues, said Shi Weiping, an official with the Municipal Public Security Bureau.

The scalpers were caught red-handed, usually at a price many times of the initial prices, Shi said.

A foreigner was found selling 24 tickets near the Water Cube at a price 10 times of the initial price on Friday morning. A woman, surnamed Zhang from outside Beijing, was caught when she sold two 150-yuan gym tickets for 1,000 yuan (US$145) each at a light rail station near the Olympic Green.

The police are investigating the cases and will punish them according to Chinese laws, he added.

Policemen would set up bilingual signs near the Olympic venues to tell foreigners that illegal selling of Olympic tickets were against Chinese laws.

(Xinhua News Agency August 17, 2008)