THOUSANDS OF villagers attacked police, took local authorities hostage and turned over cars in a violent protest against a foul smell from a waste-water treatment plant they say is poisoning the village.
Local authorities in the city of Quanzhou yesterday confirmed that more than 10,000 people had clashed with some 2,000 riot police on Monday night in the town of Fengwei.
Police fired two warning shots and used tear gas to break up the crowd.
The protesters pelted the police with stones, and kidnapped officials were only rescued after several hours.
The unrest began over anger at the foul smell and suspicions that the sewage plant is polluting the local environment. Five days ago, protesters tried to sabotage the plant and took two police officers hostage, the government said.
The sewage discharges are believed to come from a local tannery and an oil refinery, and villagers claim they have poisoned drinking water and caused cancer.
Pollution has become one of the chief causes of social unrest and public dissatisfaction with the government in China.
Three decades of strong economic growth have come at the expense of the environment and public health, and in recent years villagers have taken on local authorities to protest.
Similar incidents were reported last month in the northern Shaanxi and central Hunan provinces, where more than 2,100 children tested positive for high lead levels. Angry villagers blamed the poisonings on smelting plants in the two areas.
Xinhua news agency, which gave a much lower figure for the number of participants involved in Monday’s protest, said the villagers had lived on sea fishing but their fish and shrimp could no longer be sold.
A report by state-run Straits Metropolitan News, based in the Fujian capital of Fuzhou, also described the hostage-taking and clashes, but said only about 200 protesters were involved.
“A small number of people took advantage of the situation to cause trouble, damaging and smashing equipment,” it said, accusing “unlawful elements” of beating two police officers, seriously injuring one of them.
Eighteen people died and 10 others were injured when chemicals exploded while being unloaded from a truck in Linyi, Shandong province, the Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.