BEIJING, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Quality inspections on a range of air cleaners sold on the Chinese market have shown that nearly a quarter of them are substandard.

The result came from random inspections on 61 batches of air purifiers sold to Chinese consumers from 56 companies this year, Zhang Wenbing, an official with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), said Thursday.

Among all air purifiers inspected, 15 batches, or 24.6 percent, were found substandard in safety, performance or other indicators, Zhang, director with the department of supervision on product quality of AQSIQ, said at a press conference.

He did not specify whether the substandard air purifiers were manufactured by Chinese firms, foreign brands or joint ventures.

Some Chinese cities, including Beijing, have been troubled by air pollution in recent years, and many homes have been equipped with air cleaners.

Air purifiers, toys, cellphones and laptop computers were top of a list of products that Chinese consumers called on the administration to inspect and supervise quality of in 2017, according to the latest AQSIQ public survey, Zhang said.