Road accidents claimed 9,679 lives in China during September, an increase of 0.2 percent on the same month in the previous year, the Ministry of Public Security reported Monday.

"It's the highest monthly fatality of this year," said a ministry official.

According to their report, China's traffic police handled 43,982 road accidents in September, 15,431 less than the same period last year, but the number of injured rose by 1,248 to 45,828.

These accidents directly caused property losses worth 175 million yuan (US$21.2 million), 110 million yuan (US$13.3 million) less than last September's figure.

A total of 384,381 road accidents occurred between January and September this year, which claimed 77,664 lives, injured 347,351 and cost 1.98 billion yuan (US$239.4 million).

The number of road accidents in the nine months dropped by 24.7 percent from the equivalent period of last year.

The number of injured and direct property losses also fell by 7.7 percent and 23 percent respectively year-on-year, but the death toll rose by 2.3 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency October 19, 2004)