At least five protesters were hospitalized with broken bones after a forced eviction sparked clashes between residents and police in the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen, hospital staff said on Tuesday.
"There are two people still in hospital, and three have already been discharged," said an employee who answered the phone at the Longgang No. 2 People's Hospital in Shenzhen on Tuesday."
"They all had broken bones, and the condition of the two that remain is stable," she said.
She said the patients treated at the hospital were market stallholders who told hospital staff they were beaten by police.
"This happened [on Monday] at around 4:00-5:00 p.m. and they were all brought in at about 6:00 p.m.," the employee said. "They were male and middle-aged."
"The neighborhood committee and the hospital took this seriously and ordered them to have the best possible treatment ... to let them know that the government would take care of this."
Asked if the government was paying the men's medical bills, she said, "definitely."
Monday clashes
The clashes erupted on Monday after the authorities moved in to demolish a market in Shenzhen, and local sources said that around 1,000 riot police were deployed at the scene.
The stallholders faced off with police and officials to try to prevent the demolition work from going ahead, at which point they were beaten by around 200 hired thugs wielding metal pipes, sources said.
An official who answered the phone at the emergency services help desk confirmed that they had received calls reporting the violence.
"Yes," the employee said, when asked to confirm, but declined to give further details.
Shenzhen's Buji market was the largest in the township of the same name, covering an area of around 9,000 square meters, housing around 1,000 stallholders and their families, and employing several thousand more staff.
Stallholders tried to stop the demolition from going ahead because their goods were still in their shops, which were later demolished by the authorities, residents said.
'Frightening' scene
An employee surnamed Zhang at a nearby hotel said the scene of the violence was "very frightening."
"They started the demolition in the middle of the night at 1:00 a.m.," she said. "It was New Year's Day."
"This was a forced demolition, and the people's things hadn't been moved away yet. They demolished about half of it and then stopped," Zhang said.
She said police had now sealed off the entire area. "There are still security guards carrying out patrols," Zhang said.
A Buji stallholder surnamed Shi said the demolition gang moved in after all the stallholders had shut up shop to go home for the traditional family reunion dinner held during the holiday.
"When we got up in the morning, we saw that it had been partly demolished and that some people had got hurt," she said.
She said the authorities had first told the stallholders to vacate the market last October, sticking up notices around the area, but the stallholders had refused to leave because compensation arrangements had not yet been settled.
A second stallholder surnamed Lin who was at the scene of the clashes said police had stood by and watched as the remaining protesters at the site were assaulted.
An officer who answered the phone at the nearby police station on Tuesday declined to comment on the incident.
Reported by Fang Yuan for RFA's Mandarin service, and by Wen Yuqing for the Cantonese service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.