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DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Tugboat sinking in China kills 22 including 8 foreigners
by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) Jan 17, 2015


China street vendors fleeing officers 'run over and kill son'
Beijing (AFP) Jan 16, 2015 - A Chinese couple selling fruit on the street accidentally ran over and killed their four-year-old son while trying to avoid city enforcement officers, state media reported Friday, prompting outrage online.

It is the latest public outcry involving "chengguan", or urban management officers, who have gained particular notoriety among the Chinese public for abusing their power while enforcing city laws.

Street vendors in China often operate without licences, and can be fined for doing so.

When the fruit sellers in Zhejiang province's Hangzhou city spotted four chengguan patrolling the neighbourhood on Thursday, they got in their truck to flee, accidentally running over their son, Channel 6 TV quoted eyewitnesses as saying.

A surveillance video aired by the Zhejiang provincial station showed the father, surnamed Liu, getting into the vehicle on the driver's side while his son played on the ground, ahead of the front wheel on the passenger side.

As the chengguan chased other vendors around the street corner, the father began driving away, crushing his son under the wheel, the video showed.

"By the time I had passed by after work, the child had already passed away, and they were standing around crying," one local man told the station.

A police statement cited by the Beijing News confirmed the incident on Thursday and said that an investigation was ongoing.

Some users of China's popular online social networks responded to the report with rage, questioning why vendors should be so fearful of chengguan.

"This is devastating. Why does China need chengguan in the first place?" one poster wrote on Sina Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter.

Others pointed the finger at the couple for not taking better care of their child.

"You really can't blame the chengguan. The father cared only about himself and not his son," wrote one.

Another added: "If you let your child run around all over the street every day, then tomorrow won't he get run over by a car? This is entirely due to the negligence of the parents."

In one of the highest-profile incidents involving chengguan in recent years, four officers in the central province of Hunan were sentenced in 2013 to between three and a half and 11 years' jail 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.

Twenty-two people including eight foreigners have been confirmed dead after a tugboat sank on a trial voyage on the Yangtze, China's longest river, state media reported Saturday.

The vessel was raised Saturday, 40 hours after it sank while undergoing testing with 25 people -- including the eight foreigners -- aboard in the eastern province of Jiangsu on Thursday afternoon, state news agency Xinhua said.

Three survivors were pulled out by rescuers, whose efforts were complicated by strong currents and icy temperatures.

Images posted on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, showed family members waiting in tears by the river.

The final body was retrieved on Saturday afternoon, maritime officials said. All those on board the 30-metre (100-foot) ship were male.

A Singapore foreign ministry spokesman told AFP on Friday that the vessel was registered in the city-state and four of its nationals were on board.

The Japanese and Indian consulates in Shanghai each confirmed to AFP that one of their nationals had also been on board.

Xinhua cited local authorities as saying two others on board were from Malaysia and Indonesia.

"Water entered the boat cabin very quickly, in less than 20 seconds it was completely filled with water," survivor Wang Zhenkai told state television from his hospital bed.

Wang was accompanying a Japanese technician who was testing the engine of the ship, which reports said was made and outfitted in China.

He survived by clinging to a hydraulic pump and said he had grabbed the Japanese engineer, but their grasp was broken as the boat began to sink.

A photo carried by state media Friday showed only the bow and part of the hull of the metal ship floating above the waterline, with a salvage barge alongside.

The accident occurred on a stretch of the river that experiences extremely strong currents, between the cities of Jingjiang and Zhangjiagang, which is close to the Yangtze's mouth near the commercial hub Shanghai.

The provincial government said the boat was undergoing trials without properly completing the required procedures and without first reporting the condition of the ship, as required by regulations.


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