Property buyers attacked at site
Authorities in Shenzhen have launched an investigation into a violent attack on eight property buyers, including two from Hong Kong, who were visiting a building site.
The eight were injured on Sunday morning when they were attacked in Buji by unpaid construction workers who mistook them for the building's developers, who allegedly owe the workers money.
The eight were among scores of property buyers visiting the site at the time. The injured included a woman in her 80s but no further details were given in a report by the Hong Kong-based, pro-Beijing newspaper Wen Wei Po.
'A probe has been launched into the matter,' an official in Buji said.
The buyers invested in the property project in Buji in 1997, which is still under development but was supposed to have been completed two years ago.
According to Wen Wei Po, 300 buyers - an unspecified proportion of them from Hong Kong - had made down payments for properties located at the site.
However, construction stopped in October 2000 when the general manager of developer Guodu Group, Huang Maozhan, was detained by police for undisclosed reasons. Police also froze Guodu's capital.
Mr Huang was released two months ago and construction work resumed. But Mr Huang attempted to replace the original contractor, leaving back wages of the original construction workers unpaid.
After the Sunday incident, the Buji Government called for the developer not to replace the original contractor.
'We are now holding a meeting with the developer and the main building contractor,' the Buji official said.
'We hope that construction will be finished by May 1.'
