Henan rioters attack, take hostage 2 Guangdong police after road accident
Guangdong riot triggered by dispute after villager hit by harvester driven by outsider
Rioters beat up two policemen and took them hostage in a raid on a police station in southwestern Guangdong on Saturday, after a dispute over a village accident spiralled out of control, Xinhua reported yesterday.
More than 40 Henan natives gathered in 30 cars outside Xiangshan Weihe police station in Gaozhou's Shegu township at 5pm.
The crowd, whose members were not identified by the state media, stormed the station armed with batons about three hours later. Postings on microblogs nevertheless identified them as Henan natives.
They took two policemen hostage after beating them and damaged an office desk and computer.
The group were detained by police an hour later in Shegu township, along with the two wounded officers.
Pictures from the state news agency showed furniture, including a telephone and computer monitor, strewn across the ground floor office of the police station.
The incident came after a local villager was struck by a harvester driven by a Henan native who had been hired for the job in Baini village in Shegu.