BEIJING – CLASH between police and demonstrators erupted in south China after hundreds of people gathered to protest the handling of a housing dispute, locals and a rights group said on Tuesday.

The clashes occurred late on Monday night in Shenzhen city after protesters gathered to demonstrate against the alleged detention of up to four people representing them in the housing dispute, locals said.

‘They detained two men and two women … two of them were from the real estate management company,’ a local woman who identified herself as Wang told AFP.

‘The residents had gathered (at the local police station). There may have been 1,000 of them, including the onlookers. They fought with police.’ She said the incident occurred in front of the Taoyuan police station in Shenzhen, a major city close to Hong Kong.

Ms Wang said up to 70 protesters gathered again in front of the police station on Tuesday to continue the demonstration. Police in Shenzhen refused to comment.

According to the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, up to 10 people were injured in the Monday night clashes.

The protesters were complaining that up to 1,600 families had been sold shoddy apartments in a housing complex that began to fall apart soon after they moved in, adding that it was not built up to standard, it said.

The government had agreed that the homeowners should be compensated, it said, but protesters were angered when police detained the representatives of the owners.

China sees tens of thousands of protests or outbursts of violence every year, often stemming from land disputes or dissatisfaction with local authorities.

China’s rulers are particularly concerned about unrest in 2009, which will see a string of sensitive anniversaries including 20 years since the Tiananmen crackdown and 60 years since the founding of the communist republic. — AFP

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