BEIJING - Chinese police have helped more than 1,400 homeless or abducted children return to their homes through DNA matching as part of efforts to fight human trafficking since 2009, the Beijing News reported on Sunday.

National DNA database has reduced child trafficking in China, Chen Shiqu, director of the anti-human trafficking office of the Ministry of Public Security, was quoted as saying.

The ministry started to build up a nationwide DNA database since April 2009 in which parents who lost their children and children found homeless are collected their blood samples to conduct DNA matching.

The official said children under 16 with confirmed identities will be sent back to their parents, and those elder than 16 have the right to decide whether to go back to their birth parents by themselves.

Since April 2009, police nationwide have solved more than 39,000 human trafficking cases, busted 4,885 criminal gangs and saved 14,600 children and 24,800 women, according to statistics provided by the ministry.