Hundreds of thugs storm Lanzhou building site, beat up 70 workers

Nearly 400 thugs wielding steel bars, 300 in security uniforms, stormed a construction site in the northwestern city of Lanzhou on Monday morning, beating up workers and injuring at least 70.

"Several" workers had been left in critical condition, reported jcrb.com, as goons trashed equipment and scaffolding belonging to a new creative culture center rumored to suffer from troubling financial issues.

Police came to stop the assault after receiving a call from workers, reported the news portal supervised by the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

No real police officers were involved as the assailants were wearing "security guard uniforms," China News Service reported.

The attack appeared to have been launched over a conflict of interest between principal shareholders of the project, Zhu Guoyao and Ye Chengyue, a preliminary police investigation said.

Launched in July 2011 as a joint project of the Lanzhou Military Area Command and local companies, the new center was intended to establish a culture industrial hub in western China.

The project might have involved private fundraising of 300 million yuan ($48.3 million), media revealed last year.

A complex equity, ownership and legal representation dispute among project developers, companies and sub-companies remained unresolved, the Economic Information newspaper reported. It was also unclear if Monday's violence was linked to the dispute, the newspaper said.

Police were unable to give further details to the Global Times on Wednesday.