China Rounds Up 64 for Rioting Over SARS
Wed May 7, 2003 11:26 PM ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police have rounded up 64 people for rioting in the northern city of Chengde because they suspected a local clinic would be turned into a SARS hospital, a police official said on Thursday.
About 100 rioters overturned an ambulance and smashed medical equipment and windows with bricks in Chengde, the summer resort of Qing dynasty (1644-1911) emperors, on April 27, the official said.
Several doctors were injured slightly in the rampage in the city 110 miles northeast of Beijing, the fourth known riot over SARS in China, where the deadly disease first appeared and where the highest number of cases and deaths have occurred.
'The crowd got bigger and bigger. We couldn't control it and called in more people,' said the official, who asked not to be identified.
About 160 policemen and 60 security guards were mobilized to quell the 16-hour unrest in the city of nearly four million people, the China Police Daily said.
Of those rounded up, 13 face possible imprisonment, while 27 were detained for up to 15 days, the official said. The rest were reprimanded.
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has killed 219 and infected 4,560 in China since first surfacing in the southern province of Guangdong.
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