BEIJING -- Angry villagers set fire to police and government offices and overturned vehicles in southwest China to protest how officials handled a teenage student's death, a human rights organization and witnesses said Sunday.
The violence erupted Saturday afternoon in Weng'an, a county in Guizhou province, when thousands of people -- including many middle school students -- converged around the buildings and began attacking them, they said.
The villagers clashed with paramilitary police who were dispatched to deal with the situation.
"Thick black smoke billowed everywhere," said a man who answered the telephone at the Weng'an County People's Hospital, where he said about a dozen injured people were taken. "The incident shows that the social order around here is not stable."
The unrest was sparked by the death of a 16-year-old student who was raped and murdered, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.
Citing relatives of the girl, it said she disappeared after being called away by three young men, two of whom were related to officials in the county's public security bureau.
The men were interrogated for only 24 hours and then released, the organization said.
On Saturday, about 500 middle school students went to the public security bureau to protest "but they were dispersed and beaten," it said.
"This triggered the anger of the local people" and about 10,000 people began rioting, it said.
Violent protests have broken out across China in recent years as citizens vent anger over official corruption, land confiscations and a growing gap between the rich and poor.
The protests have been thorn in the side of the Communist leadership, which has made building what it calls a "harmonious society" a priority, and are especially embarrassing with the Aug. 8 Beijing Olympics only weeks away.
The Hong Kong rights group said one person died, 150 were injured and more than 200 people were detained in Saturday's incident. The figures could not be independently confirmed.
Telephones at county and provincial government and police offices either rang busy or were not answered on Sunday.
The man at the county hospital said the violence destroyed the first two stories of the police building and the first floor of the six-story government office building.
Most of the injured suffered from superficial wounds and were students and policemen, said the man, who refused to give his name for fear of reprisals.
Another resident who would give only his surname, Li, said while the crowd was huge, only about 100 to 200 people actively participated in the violence. Some were beating police officers, he said.
"People hate the police very much," Li said. "They ignored the case."
At around 4 a.m., police used megaphones to urge people to leave the area, and local television stations on Sunday were broadcasting notices asking people who participated in the protest to turn themselves in, he said.
-- The Associated Press
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