A total of 377 people have been apprehended on charges of using violence in disputes over COVID-19 rules between September and October, police said Thursday.

Of them, 265 used violence in mask-wearing disputes, followed by 73 accused of assaulting business owners or employees in disputes over operating hours or gathering size limits, police said.

The remaining 39 were apprehended for blackmailing or extorting goods from small business owners by threatening to report their violations of social distancing rules to authorities or threatening and assaulting public servants conducting crackdowns on incompliance with virus rules.

The total number of people apprehended for violent actions, including those connected to conflicts over virus rules, stood at 19,210 over the same period.

"To secure people's safety in their daily lives and stably carry out the 'living with COVID-19 scheme' so as to gradually return to normalcy, the police will sternly clamp down on chronic everyday violence and violent behaviors hampering antivirus efforts," a police official said. (Yonhap)