Chinese rioters batter police officers unconscious in horrific revenge attack after they beat innocent bystander until he vomited blood

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Police beat street vendor then attacked man who took photos of incident

Photographer was punched to the ground, kicked and hit with a hammer

Crowds rounded on officers after hearing reports that victim had died

Five injured - two critically - after mob beat them while shouting 'kill them!'



The officers were members of the despised chengguan police force



Hundreds of rioters battered five Chinese police officers to within an inch of their lives in protest at the beating of a woman and a brutal attack on an innocent bystander.

A baying mob rounded on the officials after hearing reports they had bullied a female street vendor then attacked a man who took photos of the incident.



Eyewitnesses said the photographer was punched to the ground, then kicked and hit with a hammer for more than a minute until he vomited blood.

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Fury: Hundreds of rioters round on a police van in violent protest after officers battered an innocent bystander because he had been taking photos of them bullying a female street vendor

Outrage: Eyewitnesses said the photographer was punched to the ground, then kicked and hit with a hammer for more than a minute until he vomited blood

The violence escalated when rumours circulated the photographer had died, although other reports said he was in a stable condition in hospital.

Some of the officers fled the scene after the attack while others got inside a yellow van but were soon surrounded by angry onlookers, some of whom burst the vehicle's tyres to prevent an escape.

It said some protesters smashed the vehicle's windows with bricks and others overturned an ambulance.

Pictures and video posted on Chinese social media show the crowds kicking, punching and stamping on the officers while shouting 'Kill them! Kill them'.

Shocking: One of the officers lies slumped in a police van after being beaten by the protesters



Horrific: Pictures of the blood-covered officers lying apparently unconscious began to circulate on Chinese social media. One report said four officers had died, although many accounts said they were badly injured

Five of the officers - part of the hated agency known as chengguan - were injured in the protest, with two in critical condition, the state-run China Daily newspaper reported Sunday.

But amid conflicting reports, Liberty Crier claimed at least four of them had been killed.

The incident at Lingxi city in Cangnan county in the eastern province of Zhejiang is the latest instance of public outrage triggered by the behaviour of China's chengguan, quasi-police officials who enforce local regulations and have a reputation for brutality .



Keeping order: More than 100 riot police were later sent in to disperse the crowds

CHINA'S VIOLENT ENFORCERS

Chengguan is the nickname given to officers in the City Urban Administrative and Law Enforcement Bureau. They differ from regular police because they only enforce city laws such as health regulations and permits for street vendors. They do not carry weapons, but have nonetheless garnered a reputation for violence against the poor and low-level traders. Their tactics are so brutal that some joke they could be deployed on the battlefield to great effect. In one of the highest-profile examples, four chengguan in the central province of Hunan were sentenced to between three and a half and 11 years in jail in December 2012 over a dispute that left a roadside watermelon vendor dead. Local media reported that the officers beat the vendor to death for operating without a licence, with one smashing his head with a metal measuring weight.



According to an account posted by the Cangnan government on its official microblog on Saturday night, the incident began when several chengguan in Lingxi demanded that a vendor stop 'illegally' selling gas stoves and other items, which they said were blocking the sidewalk.

The photographer, surnamed Huang, who happened to be passing by, began taking photos, and 'after the officers demanded he stop, to no avail, both sides clashed', the official report said.

Huang was injured in the altercation and taken to hospital, the Cangnan government said.

The official account stated that Internet rumours about 'urban management workers beating a man to death' began circulating in the afternoon, triggering a mass gathering of onlookers during which five officers were 'besieged and beaten'.

A report in the Southern Metropolis Daily on Sunday quoted several eyewitnesses who said Huang, 36, was beaten by more than a dozen officers, some uniformed and others in plainclothes.

One local resident told the paper that the vendor who triggered the incident was a young woman and that her stoves 'were not blocking the road; she just placed them in front of the store'.

The incident follows reports earlier this month that urban management officers in the eastern city of Fuzhou beat a pensioner to death, an incident that triggered national outrage online.

The incident was the third hottest topic on social networking site Sina Weibo.

'How do chengguan differ from thugs?' wrote one user.

