60 detained after clash over incinerator plan

Police officers stand on alert at an entrance of Jiufeng village in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province on Sunday afternoon. Clashes broke out Saturday after thousands of protesters rallied against a planned garbage incinerator in the village. [Photo: Yang Hui/GT]

Police in east China have detained 60 people over their violent and rumormongering behavior during protests over the construction of a waste incinerator.

Fifty-three suspects, including 11 who handed themselves in to police, are in criminal detention for disturbing public order. Seven netizens are in administrative detention for spreading rumors, said the Public Security Bureau of Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, on Monday.

Among those in criminal detention, a 43-year-old suspect surnamed Qiu from Zhejiang and another surnamed He, 24, from southwestern Sichuan Province, confessed to throwing stones at policemen and their cars, the bureau said.

Seven netizens, six from Zhejiang and one from neighboring Jiangxi province, received administration detention for five to 10 days for fabricating rumors and spreading false information on the Internet.

A 35-year-old woman surnamed Zhang claimed that four people died in the clash on her Twitter-like Tencent Weibo account, while others spread rumors that three people died and a three-year-old child was seized by police and died after falling from a bridge.

The seven admitted to spreading rumors, police said. ' On Saturday, protestors rallied and rushed onto a section of an expressway, disrupting traffic. At least 10 protestors and 29 policemen were injured as they clashed. Some police and private cars were overturned and smashed.

On Sunday, local government pledged that construction of the waste incinerator will not start without public support and before going through the legal process.