Residents of a Chinese town threw bricks at riot police, set up street barricades and overturned police cars in a sign of “copycat” demonstrations inspired by the unrest in Hong Kong.

Hundreds of people in Wenlou, about 60 miles north of Hong Kong, marched and chanted a similar protest slogan to that of the territory’s demonstrators. They took to the streets after learning that the authorities had included a crematorium in a proposed £8 million “ecological park” without notifying the public.

The protesters, who were angry about likely pollution from the project as well as the general inauspiciousness of crematoria, marched down streets and gathered in front of the township’s government building chanting “revolution now”, as Hong Kong protesters have done. One villager said: