NANJING - The number of murders in East China's Jiangsu province has decreased by 10 percent over the past year, while 97 percent of the cases were resolved, a senior officer with the criminal investigation authority in the province said.

A total of 900 murder cases were cracked by Jiangsu police in 2010, Ge Xifang, deputy head of the criminal investigation bureau under the Jiangsu provincial public security department, told China Daily in an exclusive interview.

"Sixty percent of the murder cases were caused by civil disputes," he said.