Beijing, May 10: More than 300 people have rioted against the construction of a SARS observation centre in north China's Tianjin municipality, state media today said. The unrest, which is the latest in a series of SARS-related protests, took place Tuesday and Wednesday in the municipality's Hongqiao district. The protesters sought to prevent construction of the observation center by blocking the only street leading to the building site, the agency said.
Wielding iron bars, they demanded the drivers of two trucks stop as they were trying to make their way to the building site, according to the agency. Three locals identified as ring leaders of the riot were later apprehended by police, the report said.
Tianjin, which has recorded seven deaths from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), was also the scene of another, but apparently larger riot late last month.
On April 27, some 2,000 villagers torched a school building earmarked as a SARS quarantine centre and ransacked government offices in Chagugang town, a rural settlement.
Xinhua today said that 13 people involved in the disturbance had later been arrested.
The Chaguang riot was china's first reported instance of SARS-related social unrest.
But one day after, on April 28, up to 500 villagers near Chengde city north of Beijing overturned an ambulance and stoned a hospital after they suspected a SARS patient was being transferred to the facility. Bureau Report