Tension continued to escalate in Haimen, Guangdong, yesterday with more than 6,000 villagers opposed to construction of a power plant shouting slogans and holding banners in a fourth day of confrontation with riot police near the Shenzhen-Shantou highway.
The offciers responded with volleys of tear gas.
Elderly villagers whose children or relatives were detained during the previous three days of protests knelt with burning joss sticks at a police barricade to plead for their release.
Behind them, several thousand residents shouted and waved white banners with black slogans saying: 'Conscienceless government persecutes compatriots, immediately release detainees' and 'Safeguard our hometown, oppose building of power plants'.
Thousands of armed police, worried protesters might occupy the highway, fired dozens of tear gas canisters. Tensions peaked when more than 500 riot police with shields and batons shouted and converged on the crowd at 2.40pm. Residents fled the scene but returned as soon as the police withdrew half an hour later.
'We demand the immediate release of our fellow villagers,' a middle-aged woman said. 'Several dozen of our people have been taken away and we need to know their whereabouts.'
Demonstrators said that at least 200 protesters had been injured in the previous three days and they had seen 1,000 riot police reinforcements arrive on Thursday and several hundred more yesterday.
