What do you with 156 illegal taxis that have been seized by officials?

You hand them over to the legal taxi drivers to destroy of course.

Authorities in the Chinese city of Hefei did just that earlier this month and the destruction of the vehicles was carried with "great vigor" by the legal taxi drivers who were helped by police and city workers according website, carnewschina.com.

Apparently illegal taxis are a big problem in China with the vehicles often painted in the same colour scheme as legal companies. They operate without licenses and with bugged or fake meters. Often the vehicles are considered unroadworthy.

In this instance the illegal cars were completely destroyed with a professional recycling team bought in to finish the job.

Carnewschina.com reports, however, that much of the illegal taxi problem in China is because the legal companies are often state, provincial or local government-owned and they want to keep competition out.

- © Fairfax NZ News