From AP:
Police have beaten and detained protesters holding a rally in southern China to seek compensation for damaged property, an activist group said Thursday.
Human Rights in China said in a statement that more than 500 police and paramilitary police clashed Wednesday with hundreds of village protesters in rural Sanjiang Town in Guangdong province’s Xinhui District.
It said the protest followed a typhoon which collapsed the local dam, damaging farmland, fish ponds and farm property. Villagers blamed government officials for illegally selling and removing trees around the dam, which may have caused it to collapse, the group said.