Dozens of relatives of a young woman who died at a hospital in Jianli county, Hubei, following complications from a caesarean section protested beside her body in the hospital's foyer on Friday, accusing doctors of committing medical blunders.
It said Li Liuli , 27, suffered a cerebral haemorrhage after a caesarean section on the night of January 12 and was pronounced dead on Thursday, January 17.
More than 60 of her relatives and friends put her body in the hospital's foyer the next day, it said. Online postings said police called in by the hospital had beaten the protesters, who fought back and overturned at least one police car.
The police took away some protesters said to have been involved in the violence, before transferring Li's remains to a local funeral parlour, the report said.
A witness who declined to give his name confirmed the incident in a phone call yesterday, saying: "Hundreds of protesters and passers-by gathered outside the front gate of the hospital last Friday. I saw one police vehicle had been overturned."