A construction team in southern China began beating villagers at a hotly disputed real estate project after a worker ran his truck into a local who later died from injuries, press reports said Friday.
Villagers on Guanzhou island, Guangdong province, had gathered on Tuesday to protest the accident and demand compensation when workers began beating them with iron clubs, Radio Free Asia reported, citing local press reports. Up to 14 villagers were injured in the clashes, it said.
The incident was the latest to occur in China, where unrest over government-backed land grabs have become increasingly common. The Southern Daily identified the villager who died as Chen Yongqi, and quoted local government officials as saying that the construction workers would be brought to justice.
"The villagers demanded that he (the driver) pay compensation for the injury. Not only did he refuse, he summoned some people to beat us," Radio Free Asia quoted one witness as saying.
"Things are very bad now." Since a university development project on Guanzhou island began more than two years ago, locals have expressed widespread discontent over the low compensation afforded them as real estate prices in the prosperous Pearl River Delta have climbed. The region has been the site of numerous violent protests over local government-backed land grabs.
These protests have formed a backdrop to rising social discontent nation-wide as the gap between rich and poor has widened during China's breakneck economic growth.
According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Public Security, there were 87,000 protests, officially termed "mass incidents," reported in 2005, up 6.6 percent on 2004 and 50 percent on 2003. On Wednesday, in neighbouring Jiangxi province, police fired tear gas during violent clashes with hundreds of protesters who blocked a key railway in protest over a decision to merge two cities.