CHINESE police are hunting protesters who went on the rampage in a campaign against a huge waste incinerator, turning over and setting fire to police cars.
Smog blankets many Chinese cities and the environmental degradation resulting from the country's economic growth is angering its increasingly well-educated and affluent population.
The demonstrations, which have run for more than two weeks, turned violent on Saturday, with hundreds of police descending on to the streets of Yuhang, close to the eastern tourist city of Hangzhou. At least 10 protesters and 29 policemen were injured, more than 30 cars were overturned, two police cars set on fire and four smashed up.
The government says it will shelve plans to build the plant if it does not have popular support.
Eleven suspects involved in the violence had already turned themselves in and 53 had been detained, police said, adding that they were urging others to surrender.
Similar protests have also succeeded in getting projects shut down elsewhere in China.
Hangzhou is best known in China as the site of a famous lake but has seen its lustre dimmed in recent years by recurrent smog.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article