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6 SARS Cases in Shanghai Monday May 5, 2:02 PM SARS riots hit China Farmers and villagers in remote areas of China rioted and destroyed SARS quarantine centers in at least two parts of the country in an effort to prevent the disease from spreading to their areas, local officials said. More than 100 farmers on Saturday and Sunday attacked a government office in Yuhuan county, in eastern Zhejiang province, and beat up officials, enraged that a SARS quarantine center would be set up in their community, a local police official named Weng told AFP. "Several people have been detained as a result of the incident," Weng said by telephone. In another incident, villagers rioted from April 25 to 28 in Linzhou city, central Henan province, ransacking a planned SARS quarantine center and other medical facilities, Zhou Dawei, a local Linzhou official told AFP. The Linzhou riot resulted in the May 2 sacking of the director of the city's health bureau Wang Songlin and the city's infectious diseases station Wang Yuxi, Zhou said. At least 13 people in Linzhou were arrested. Only three cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) have been reported in Zhejiang, while 14 cases have been reported in Henan, according to figures released by the health ministry. Social stability is starting to emerge as one of the casualties of China's war on SARS, which has killed about 200 people and infected more than 4,000 in the world's most populous country. The riots also appear to reflect widespread concerns over the SARS epidemic spreading to China's rural hinterlands and follow an April 27 incident in eastern Tianjin where some 2,000 villagers ransacked and torched a SARS quarantine facility in Chagugang village. Some 20 people were arrested in the Chagugang riots, villagers said. According to the Jianghuai Morning Post, the riot in Yuhuan county erupted as irate farmers gathered outside a government office. What triggered their anger was the plan to use a dormitory as a quarantine center, initially earmarked for six local travelers who had returned from an unidentified SARS hotspot, the paper said. After surrounding the office for several hours, dozens of farmers eventually stormed inside, ransacking three rooms and beating up three officials. In the Linzhou city incident, most of the rioters were people living around the Hujiayao SARS quarantine center, who were incited to riot by three "social misfits," the China News Service said. After destroying the quarantine center, rioters gathered on April 27 in front of the local health station and preceded to tear down the walls and gate of the facility and ransack the health station's offices. The rioting also damaged the city's Chinese medical hospital, the report said. |