(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. More
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