Tension was high yesterday in a south Chinese village where numerous demonstrators were allegedly slain in an incident suggesting the nation's paramilitary troops are prepared to shoot to kill.
Hundreds of police were stationed in and around Dongzhou, near Shanwei city in Guangdong Province, where locals said law enforcers opened fire on a crowd of protesters earlier in the week.
"The police have blocked roads leading into the village and they are patrolling the streets," a Dongzhou resident, who gave his surname as Chen, said by telephone.
The shootings occured on Tuesday during a clash between hundreds of members of the paramilitary People's Armed Police (PAP) and more than 1,000 villagers.
The special police unit opened fire after villagers set up a blockade to prevent them from entering and threw gasoline bombs at them, according to residents.
The death toll was unclear but one villager said on condition of anonymity that about 30 demonstrators were killed. Others said several more were unaccounted for.
"It's definitely not correct," Liu Jingmao, vice director of Shanwei city's publicity department, said when asked to comment on the figures. "It's pure rumor."
He said China's state-run media would carry a report with the official version of the events today.
In Dongzhou, villagers were pleading with the authorities for the return of bodies of their loved ones for proper funerals but so far in vain, according to eyewitnesses.
"I've seen relatives of the people who were killed kneeling in front of the police asking them to return the bodies," said a villager surnamed Wei. "But the police have refused to hand over the bodies."
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