Shanghai Daily | 上海日报 -- English Window to China News

A GIRL'S death in southwest China caused a weekend of violence that at its peak involved up to 30,000 people and the torching of government buildings.

The incident began on Saturday when about 300 people, who were dissatisfied with a police report on the death of a 17-year-old girl student, started to gather at the county government and public security bureau in Weng'an County of Guizhou Province, local government and police sources said.

The crowd grew in number and the resulting chaos was eventually brought under control on Sunday morning.

Yesterday, it was business as usual. Restaurants and roadside vendors opened early and downtown shops which were closed on Sunday reopened. Police said 20 officers were wounded in the violence, and witnesses said more than 30 protesters were hurt.

A total of 20 burned vehicles lay scattered in the yard of the county government compound. Sections of the building of the county's Communist Party Committee were destroyed by fire, and a staircase was still smoldering. About 100 armed policemen were patrolling the area.

The dead girl, Li Shufen, was a student at the No. 3 Middle School in Weng'an. Her body was recovered from a river in the county on June 22.

A police report said she had drowned, but relatives said she had been murdered. Some suggested the girl had been raped and killed by people with connections to local government officials.

Wang Jiao, a classmate of Li, together with two men, were among the last people to speak to Li before she died. They were taken away by police after the girl's death, but were released the next day.

Vice county head Xiao Song denied connections between children of local officials and the girl's death.

But Li's classmates and her landlord said she was a good student and couldn't have killed herself.

"She was a quiet and nice child. She seldom hung out or played around. I don't think she killed herself," said landlord Liu Jinxue, who helped pull her body from the river.

Liu said the girl's uncle, Li Xiuzhong, had several serious confrontations with the police, and had been beaten by unidentified men in the street. He was in a county hospital last week, but had since been transferred elsewhere.

Li's grandmother, Lu Xiuzhen, said the girl's father had gone to the provincial capital, Guiyang, to petition the government. The mother had "gone mad" since the incident, she said.

The crowd which stormed into the police bureau on Saturday was dispersed by police using tear gas.

The provincial government has sent 10 criminal investigators and forensic experts to reinvestigate Li's death.

Provincial public security chief Cui Yadong said 14 people were detained on Saturday.