Mobile phone subscribers in the Chongqing Municipality in Southwest China may now report any threatening, frightening, obscene or insulting short messages they receive to police, reports China News.

Subscribers should record detailed information, including the time and date the message was received, the number it was sent from and the content of the message.

They can then dial a special police hotline, access a designated website or send a short message to the police to report the harassment.

Police will investigate each call and punish the senders in accordance with the law.

The move is an attempt to curb the spread of annoying short messages.

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