China town riots over Sars plan

Rioters set fire to the school building

A town on the outskirts of Beijing has been hit by rioting after residents heard of plans to turn an old school into a building for quarantining Sars patients, officials said on Tuesday.

The riot erupted on Sunday night in Chagugang, a town of about 32,000 people near the port of Tianjin, 70 km (45 miles) south-east of Beijing.

It was the first recorded incident of social unrest over Sars - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - which has so far killed at least 148 people in the Chinese mainland.

After mounting international pressure, the Chinese Government was eventually forced to admit 10 days ago that the actual number of Sars cases was much greater than official figures showed.

Beijing's mayor and the national health minister were sacked, accused of covering up the extent of the outbreak.

Government officials are now struggling to gain the trust of the Chinese people, which they urgently need if they want to implement effective measures to fight the disease.

On the rampage

A mob of as many as 2,000 people are said to have set fire to the school building in Chagugang.

They also ransacked government offices and overturned cars, reports say.

Riot police were called in to quell the disturbance, local officials said.

The protesters were rioting at what they said were plans to earmark the abandoned school as a Sars quarantine centre.

The Health Bureau in nearby Tianjin, which is responsible for the town's medical care, denied it had plans to build a Sars ward in Chagugang, according to the Associated Press.

China, and especially the capital Beijing, are introducing ever-more draconian measures to combat the spread of the virus.

On Tuesday, the country recorded another nine deaths and 200 new Sars infections.

All entertainment venues in Beijing have been closed, as have schools and three hospitals.

In Xiaotangshan, a town north-east of Beijing, workers have just finished a new complex for up to 1,000 quarantined Sars suspects, built in just six days.