The number of serious crimes involving the use of firearms in Japan rose 26.1 percent in the first six months of this year compared with the same period last year, the National Police Agency said Thursday.

A total of 87 serious crimes involving guns were reported, consisting of 63 robbery and murder-robbery cases, 16 murders, two assaults and six cases of threats, according to an NPA survey.

The number of robbery and murder-robbery cases in which guns were used rose by 16 from the same period last year. In those cases, guns were fired in six incidents, up four from the corresponding period in 1999.

Police confiscated 413 guns in the six-month period, down 93 from a year earlier. The number of guns seized from gangsters and gangster groups was 242, down 42 from the first half of 1999.

Another survey by the NPA revealed Thursday that computer-related crimes, including fraud and copyright violations, doubled in the first six months of this year from the same period in 1999.

Arrests were made in 14 fraud cases allegedly committed via the Internet, twice the figure recorded in the corresponding period last year.

Most of the victims of online fraud were bidders in Internet auctions and people who applied for goods or services advertised on Web sites, the survey showed.