The patrols, made up of civil and armed police, will start on Tuesday in the capital and neighbouring cities, the Beijing News said -- the latest measure aimed at preventing unrest during celebrations of 60 years of Communist rule.

China is planning a military parade, mass song and dance performances, and fireworks on October 1 to mark the day when revolutionary leader Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of Communist China in 1949 at Tiananmen Square.

Authorities have started clamping down ahead of the celebrations, with thousands of additional police already deployed in the capital.

As with the Olympic Games in August last year, vehicles entering and leaving Beijing are carefully monitored, and security checks in key sites such as the subway system have been stepped up.

Meanwhile, the Civil Affairs Ministry ordered officials to clear out beggars and homeless people in Beijing and other major cities in the run up to the 60th anniversary, the China News Service said.

"Civil affairs departments... must help support Beijing during the commemorations of the 60th anniversary and return itinerant, under-aged, mentally ill and severely handicapped people to their hometowns," it said.

China typically cracks down on potential unrest and on what it sees as social eyesores ahead of politically sensitive anniversaries to prevent activities that could be seen as tarnishing the Communist Party's rule.

In June, Chinese police launched a "strike-hard" campaign against prostitution that was slated to run up until the October 1 anniversary.

The government has appeared particularly nervous ahead of National Day following deadly unrest that rocked Tibet last year and the mainly Muslim Xinjiang region in July, and amid a rising tide of social unrest nationwide.

related report
More needle attacks in tense China city: state media
There has been a fresh wave of needle attacks in recent days despite heavy security in China's tense Urumqi city, state media reported Wednesday, adding that the number of arrests had grown to 45.

Police in the capital of the northwestern Xinjiang region said they received reports of 77 needle attacks between Sunday afternoon and Monday afternoon, the China Daily said.

Authorities had previously reported a total of 531 assaults.

The attacks came despite the deployment of thousands of armed police throughout the city following large-scale protests last week in which demonstrators demanded government action to stop the attacks.

The paper said police had apprehended 10 more suspects over the needle attacks, raising the total to 45. Authorities have said some attackers could be given the death penalty if convicted of spreading toxic substances.

The attacks have caused ethnic tensions to spike once again in the city, the scene of deadly unrest on July 5 that pitted Xinjiang's minority Uighurs against members of China's dominant Han ethnic group.

Nearly 200 people died in the July violence, mostly Han Chinese.

The mainly Muslim Uighurs have long seethed at what many say has been decades of Chinese oppression and unwanted immigration of millions of ethnic Han.

Han residents of the city have blamed Uighurs for the needle attacks. There are fears the assailants used syringes containing dangerous chemicals, viruses or other substances that could be harmful.

Officials have so far said no evidence of such risks has been detected, although the city's prosecutor on Saturday described one case involved drug users assaulting a police officer with a syringe containing heroin.

Authorities have tightened restrictions on the possession of some chemicals, Xinhua news agency reported late Tuesday.

Citing Xinjiang's government, it said businesses or individuals seeking to buy "dangerous chemicals" must receive prior approval from police, and both buyers and sellers must have the appropriate licence for such transactions.

Xinhua said the government, which said the measure was aimed at ensuring "workplace safety," did not specify the substances involved.

The head of the Urumqi branch of the Communist Party and Xinjiang's top police official were both sacked Saturday in the wake of the needle attacks and subsequent protests.

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