Ligang county residents took to the streets en mass to protest a crematorium planned to be built in their locality on April 12, Sina reports.

Located near the city of Huazhou in the jurisdiction of Maoming, Hainan News reported 10,000 protestors were present at the scene. The deputy mayor had come out to address the crowd during the confrontation, but would flee into a nearby bank for protection when the crowd besieged him according to certain eyewitness accounts.

However, government officials would tell a different story. They state that only a total of 500 protestors were at the scene with the rest serving as only “spectators”. As well, the deputy mayor was not chased into the bank where he hid for protection; rather, since negotiation is a thirsty business, the deputy mayor had gone into the bank for the expressed purpose of finding a refreshing beverage.

Both accounts would agree that later that afternoon, the deputy mayor announced that after deliberations by the town council, an agreement was passed to unequivocally halt construction of the crematorium.

Ligang officials now state that “local traffic is unimpeded, the mood of the masses are stable, and the situation is back to normal,” all underlying the fact that this none of these things were happening last week Saturday.

No conflicts were reported to have happened, and no one has been detained by police.

Maoming has been the site of recent unrest when residents protested against a proposed PX chemical plant. Employing the use of Weibo to publish pictures with violent images of unverified authenticity, the protest spread to Guangzhou before officials finally capitulated to the protestors demands.

Photos: Hainan News