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Agnes Cheung

CONSTANT tension between migrant workers and villagers in Longtian, Shenzhen, is believed to be the cause of a weekend clash in which at least three people were killed and more than 60 injured.

One migrant worker from Hunan was allegedly shot dead by anti-riot police who reportedly opened fire when about 500 workers stormed the Communist Party office after police arrested dozens of them.

Another worker was said to have been beaten to death by the police.

Unconfirmed reports said a security guard hired by the local police was killed by workers in the brawl. Ten of the injured were reportedly in critical condition.

Officials from Beijing, Guangdong and Hunan are investigating.

Migrant workers from Hunan yesterday complained they were often bullied by local villagers and police.

The atmosphere in Longtian Village, in Longguan District, remained tense yesterday with police armed with sub-machineguns guarding the Communist Party Committee office, hospitals and streets.

Half a dozen Public Security Bureau vehicles patrolled the village.

Another three vehicles were parked in front of the hospitals where injured non-local labourers were being treated.

Two-thirds of the village's 20,000 population are migrant workers, mostly from Hunan and Hubei provinces.

The violence began after a dispute between a local resident and migrant workers after he reportedly ignored their demands to replace a wire barrier he allegedly broke while riding his motorcycle, according to witnesses.

'We just completed paving the motorway . . . He [the motorcyclist] then called the security guards and the police to come,' one injured worker said.

'They didn't ask us anything and began to arrest us.' Another wounded labourer added: 'They didn't reason with us. They just hit us Hunanese.' Evidence of the clash was apparent yesterday with virtually every window of the three-storey party office smashed. Furniture inside was turned upside down.

A police officer who said he was present at the crackdown denied that the police had opened fire but many local villagers said that they heard gun shots fired by the police.

Witnesses said a worker was gunned down by three shots in the chest, while another 17-year-old worker was beaten to death.

More than 20 of the injured workers were treated at the Longguan People's No 2 Hospital. One worker visited by reporters showed leg wounds apparently caused by gunshots.

Witnesses said scuffles between migrant workers and local village guards are common and Sunday's uprising is said to have stemmed from long-standing tension.

'This incident is just an example how ugly the widening gap between the rich and the poor could turn out,' a sociology lecturer at Shenzhen University said.

A Hubei worker whose factory was next to the party committee office said: 'I knew the workers had an argument with the authorities. They were fighting. But I was not sure of the cause.' But she said the hostility between non-local workers and some of the 20 village guards who were hired by the police was the cause for the uprising.



Fatal clash blamed on village tension