Villagers storm office of power firm with body
More than 1,000 angry Sichuan villagers have stormed a power company's office carrying the body of a neighbour believed to have been beaten to death after a dispute with a company clerk over half a yuan, local media reported.
Carrying funeral wreaths, the villagers from Hesheng village in Chengdu's Wenjiang district laid the body of 43-year-old Ye Yongqiang in the company's foyer on Sunday, and demanded that clerk Zhang Zhiqun be held responsible for Ye's death, the Tianfu Morning Paper reported.
According to the report, Ye went to the office on Sunday morning with his nephew's wife, Hu Yongfen, to pay an electricity bill. Ms Hu and Ms Zhang started arguing over change of 50 fen, but Ye broke up the fight and returned home with Ms Hu.
At about noon, six men and a woman arrived at the village by van and attacked Ye as he fled to a neighbour's yard. During the attack, one of the men made a reference to the argument, telling Ye he had no business intervening in the dispute, the report said.
Ye died before emergency medical workers arrived to take him to hospital. Villagers took his body in a blood-soaked sheet to the company's office, tore a picture of Ms Zhang off the wall and placed the photograph on the corpse.