Ashes of Chinese victims in Vietnam riots return

The ashes of two victims in Vietnam's anti-China riots returned home on Sunday through the Friendship Gate in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The two victims Yi Jijun and Zhang Yijian were workers of China's 19th Metallurgical Corporation. Their construction site in Vietnam's central Ha Tinh province was attacked on May 14 during the anti-China riots. Four workers were killed and more than 130 were injured.

The ashes of the two victims were delivered to their relatives around 2:10 p.m..

"The incident happened one month after my brother (Yi Jijun) went to work in Vietnam, leaving an eight-year-old child at home," said Yi Jikun, the elder brother.

The 20-year-old Zhang from the central Hubei Province died just three days after he arrived in Vietnam.

Gao Huigang, a security manager of the company's engineering project in Ha Tinh, said the riots made the company lose 370 million yuan (59.24 million US dollars), and most workers in the project have come back home.

"We hope Vietnam will compensate for our loses and ensure the safety of our people in Vietnam," Gao said.

In mid-May, a series of riots hit foreign companies in southern and central Vietnam, leaving five Chinese nationals dead, around 20 foreign factories burned down and some 1,100 foreign companies affected.