BEIJING - Chinese railway police arrested 208 ticket scalpers during the Spring Festival holiday, confiscating 2,531 train tickets, said a statement released Monday by the public security bureau of the Ministry of Railways (MOR).

Police cracked 179 ticket scalping cases and shut down 19 ticket scalping gangs during the period, according to the statement.

Eighty-six fugitive suspects were tracked down and arrested during the period, it said.

Police also seized more than 6,000 knives during their holiday patrol in ticket-selling halls, waiting rooms and other key areas of railway stations.

Efforts were also intensified to crack down on stealing and fraud ?cases to further ensure passengers' safe travel, said the statement.

China's railways carried 31.3 million passengers during the week-long Spring Festival holiday from Jan 22 to 28, the MOR said Sunday.

During the holiday, a total of 31.97 million train tickets were sold. Among them, 20.3 percent of all tickets were sold through the official ticket-selling website, 12306.cn, or by telephone, according to the MOR.

In this year's Spring Festival travel rush, passengers could buy train tickets online or by telephone for the first time. They could also queue to buy tickets from railway stations.