Mystery motorcycle death ends in riot

Source: Xinhua  |   2008-7-19  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

MORE than 100 people attacked police officers over the controversial death of a motorcyclist in Huizhou City of south China's Guangdong Province on Thursday, local authorities said yesterday.

The trouble lasted from early morning until 1pm and police took seven people into custody.

The mob overturned a police wagon and raided a police station, the office of the villagers' committee of Shangnan, and nearby shops in Yuanzhou Township, Boluo County, a spokesman for the Boluo County Committee of the Communist Party of China said.

He said riot police were sent to maintain order but did not reveal whether there were any casualties.

The trouble was triggered by the death of a man, surnamed Ouyang, from central Hunan Province, who made money using his motorcycle to carry passengers in Boluo, the spokesman said.

The driver's family members said that Ouyang was beaten to death by security guards of Shangnan Village, but local police were told that Ouyang died in a traffic accident, he said.

The traffic police of Yuanzhou Township received an emergency call at 4:27am on Thursday about a rider who fell from his motorcycle and was injured near a gas station. They found the driver dead when they arrived at 4:40am.

A 30-meter-long tire track was found on the ground, suggesting the motorcycle was traveling at high speed. The rider suffered extensive head injuries.

After a site investigation for an hour, officers decided to take the motorcycle back to the police station and send the driver's body to a funeral home. However, they were stopped by the victim's friends.

The family members of the dead rider arrived at the scene about 7am, claiming he was beaten to death by the guards. They demanded that nobody move the body before the "murderers" were caught and punished.

More than 100 people, including the victim's family members, people from Ouyang's hometown and many who had no knowledge of what had happened, staged an attack, the spokesman said.

Authorities were investigating whether Ouyang's death was a traffic accident or the result of a beating, he said.

They were also investigating whether Ouyang had ongoing trouble with the security guards, whether he was being chased by them when the accident happened, whether the guards charged him "protection fees" and other issues, he added.

"At the request of family members, local police are waiting for the arrival of forensic doctors from their hometown to conduct a postmortem and determine the real cause of death," the spokesman said.