Beijing police yesterday set fire to 393.5 kg of illegal drugs to mark the 170th anniversary of the famous Humen Opium Destruction.

A majority of the banned substances destroyed included heroin, methamphetamine (ice), cocaine and marijuana.

Shi Dawei, the political commissar of the capital's anti-drug committee, said the police yesterday destroyed "only about half of the drugs they seized" between 2006 and last year.