SHANGHAI (AFP) - Residents of central China have clashed with police, overturning cars, after a drunk police officer killed at least five people in a traffic accident, media reports and a witness said Sunday.
The police officer, Wang Yinpeng, lost control of his van and ran into two utility poles in Runan county in Henan province on Saturday afternoon, causing the deaths, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Three others were injured, Xinhua said. It made no mention of the subsequent protest.
People gathered to protest after police tried to take the bodies away, some of them smashing and flipping over three police cars and two vans, said the Southern Metropolis Daily, a newspaper known for investigative journalism.
One witness put the number of protestors in the thousands, but that figure could not be confirmed.
"People were angry that the police didn't protect the scene but tried to pull the bodies away," the witness, who declined to be named, told AFP.
She said rumours that more people had died in the accident angered the crowd, which did not disperse until early Sunday morning.
Authorities have arrested Wang, who was driving under the influence of alcohol, Xinhua quoted the local government as saying.
County police declined to comment Sunday.
This marks the second violent protest in China in less than a week.
Hundreds of people clashed with police and smashed cars in eastern China after protests over taxes turned violent on Thursday.
Several police were hurt in the riots, which began as a protest by business owners over taxes in the eastern Chinese city of Huzhou in Zhejiang province.
Mass protests are not uncommon in China as people, many left behind by the country's economic boom, take to the streets to air their grievances.
<한글기사>
中 경찰관, 음주사고로 5명 숨져
음주운전을 단속해야 할 경찰관이 술에 취한 상태로 경찰차를 몰고 가다 사고를 내 5명을 숨지게 했다.
30일 신화통신에 따르면 29일 오후 2시40분께 허난성 루난(汝南)현의 한 도로에 서 파출소 소속 공안 왕모씨가 몰던 경찰차가 길가 버스 정거장 쪽으로 돌진했다.
이 사고로 전봇대 2개가 넘어지면서 주변에 있던 주민 4명이 숨지고 부상자 1명 은 병원으로 옮겨져 치료를 받던 중 목숨을 잃었다.
공안은 술에 취한 상태에서 운전하다 사고를 낸 왕씨를 구속했다.
중국에서는 그동안 심각한 사고만 내지 않으면 음주 운전을 하다 적발돼도 과태 료만 내는 수준에서 책임을 면했다.
그러나 최근 음주운전 사고에 대한 비난 여론이 높아지자 중국 정부는 5월 형법 을 개정해 술에 취한 상태로 운전하다 적발되는 것만으로도 형사 처벌과 함께 운전 면허가 자동 취소되도록 했다.
중국 현지 언론들은 경찰의 사고 처리에 불만을 품은 지역 주민들이 시체를 치우기 위해 현장에 도착한 자동차들을 전복하고 때려부수는 등 항의 시위를 벌였다고 전했다.
신화 통신은 루나현 공안 당국이 사건 조사를 위한 특별팀을 구성했다며 경찰의 유죄가 확정되면 사형에 처해질 것이라고 말했다.
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