Five officials at the local level are being investigated over allegations of taking bribes, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said in a statement on Sunday.

Wu Wenyuan, head of the rural credit cooperative union of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, was arrested for taking bribes and is being investigated.

Li Bao, vice director of the department of environmental protection in Hebei Province is being examined after allegedly accepting bribes.

Three former officials in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Yang Youming, former vice director of the department of transport, Jia Fenqiang, former vice director of the department of public security, and Zhou Jinzhu, former deputy head of information technology office, are also under investigation and have been placed under "coercive measures" for allegedly accepting bribes.

According to the Criminal Procedure Law, coercive measures include summons by force, bail, residential surveillance, detention and arrest. The SPP did not specify what measures had been taken.