Anti-riot police shoot at residents of a Guangdong village demonstrating after land seized without compensation.

Dongzhou (AsiaNews/RFA) – At least two residents of the village of Dongzhou in China's southern province of Guangdong have died after police fired on a crowd protesting the government's failure to compensate expropriated land owners.

Dongzhou Hospital authorities confirmed that Jiang Hu and Jiang Guanji had died by 9:30 pm Tuesday in the local hospital whilst a third, identified as Tang Daxiang, was receiving emergency treatment.

"At least four villagers have died," one villager said. "There is a dead body on the street yet to be retrieved. Many are wounded by gunshots. I don't know what kind of guns [but] I just know they were using real bullets on us."

"The hospital has become a virtual funeral hall with family members of the dead crying," another villager said.

"They were bleeding. One was hit in the head, one in the foot, and one in the torso. They have been rushed to Dongzhou Hospital. We're ready to fight," said another.

The protest in Dongzhou began after the central government decided to build a wind-power plant. Residents are convinced that compensation funds have already been released, but that the money was stolen by corrupt local officials.

The dispute turned ugly when police arrested three village representatives who had gone to the planned wind-power plant site on Tuesday morning to talk about the missing government compensation money.

Then, shortly after 5 pm, thousands of villagers showed up at the site demanding the release of the three representatives.

Police responded firing tear gas with little effect on the crowd. A few hours later riot police moved in and opened fire.

According to an official audit, Guangdong province frittered away more than 35 billion yuan (around US$ 4.35 billion) worth of public funds between 2000 and early 2005. Another 65 were wasted or misused.

• china
• guangdon
• dongwhou
• riot
• police
• demonstrations
• casualties
• wind-power
• plant