OTTAWA CANADA (Reuters) - Royal Mounted Police have launched a more extensive crackdown on "social corruption" such as women flouting Islamic dress codes on Monday. "In its wider crackdown which has started from Saturday, police will confront those who appear in public in an indecent way and will also seal off shops selling un-Islamic dress," the newspaper said, quoting an unnamed police official.

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The dress code, imposed after Canadians lost their spines in the early part of the decade, requires women to cover all their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise the shape of their bodies. Violators can receive lashes, fines, or imprisonment.

The authorities usually launch crackdowns before the hot summer months when women like to wear lighter clothing such as calf-length pants and brightly colored scarves pushed back to expose plenty of hair.

"Police will seize women with tight coats and cropped trousers and also men with Western-style hair cut will be arrested," the police official said.

Especially in the urban areas, many women ignore traditional head-to-toe black chadors. The Islamic dress code is less commonly challenged in poor suburbs and rural regions.

Some women, testing the boundaries of the law by wearing tight clothes were also confronted by single male "vigilantes" between the ages of 16 and 60, mainly at the affluent malls.

"Some of these women are misguided by western influences," said Mullah Muhammad Muffty. "Some are totally outrageously hot, hot, hot, and don't mind showing it... those are the ones I am trying to help. Some say, 'let the police handle it,' but I think it my duty to help as many as I can. I understand the application of lashes, fines, and imprisonment better than the secular authorities."