Three people were in serious condition in hospital in eastern China yesterday after setting themselves on fire to protest over being forcibly evicted, state media reported.
Chinese online reports of the incident in Jiangxi Province showed graphic pictures of at least two people engulfed in flames, but many other reports appeared to have been quickly deleted by government Internet censors.
China has witnessed a surge of violent confrontations over land seizures as officials forcibly remove residents to make way for property developments or infrastructure projects, causing official unease over potential social unrest.
The incident occurred on Friday in Fuzhou when Luo Zhifeng, 59, her daughter Zhong Ruqin, 31, and family friend Ye Zhongcheng, 79, set themselves alight, said rednet.com, an official news Web site based in Hunan Province.
They were reportedly dissatisfied with the compensation offered in return for their forced eviction from their homes to make way for a bus terminal, it said.
Pictures on rednet.com showed one person standing on the roof of a residential building completely engulfed in flames, while another photo showed a person leaping from the building while on fire.
The trio remained in life-threatening condition, the report said.
The pace of such incidents picked up last year as profit-minded officials and businesses sought to cash in on a nationwide property boom by evicting residents and developing their land, according to previous reports.
In late April, a Chinese Communist Party official in Henan Province was detained after he allegedly ordered a truck driver to run over a protester in a land dispute. The protester was killed.
In another case, a 47-year-old woman set herself on fire in November last year in Sichuan Province over the planned demolition of her husband’s garment-processing business. She died 16 days later.
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