Photos emerge of riots in southern Chinese city of Xintang

By David R Arnott, msnbc.com

Pictures have been slow to emerge from the southern Chinese city of Xintang, where rioting factory workers enraged by the reported beating of a street vendor attacked police stations and torched vehicles over the weekend.

According to an AP report, Xintang residents contacted by phone on Tuesday said security forces were a constant presence on city streets, and they had been told not to go out at night or transmit photos of the unrest online.

However, a number of photographs taken by stringers working for Reuters and AFP have been made available over the past 24 hours.

Reuters

A man takes a photograph of an overturned police vehicle on a street in Xintang town, in southern China's Guangdong province on June 11. Riot police fired tear gas to disperse rampaging migrant workers protesting over the mistreatment of a pregnant street hawker by security guards, media reports said on Monday, the latest in a series of protests across the country.

AFP - Getty Images

Hundreds of residents gathering along the main road in Xintang town, a denim garment manufacturing district, on June 12.

AFP - Getty Images

Onlookers watch cars burning after hundreds of residents rioted along the main road in Xintang on June 12.

AFP - Getty Images

Damaged police cars, overturned by protesters after hundreds of residents rioted along the main road in Xintang on June 12.

AFP - Getty Images

Hundreds of riot police marching along streets in Xintang on June 13.

Daniel Wallis / Reuters

Migrant worker Yu Ankun from Sichuan province sits inside a small family-run factory where he works making jeans in the village of Dadun, part of the town of Xintang, on June 14, Riot police managed to restore a semblance of calm to the riot-torn town on Tuesday, but the anger of migrant workers at being discriminated against by the authorities remained palpable.

AP described the background to the protest:

The violence in Xintang broke out Friday evening after a pregnant woman was pushed to the ground in a sweep against street vendors, most of whom are migrants from the southwestern province of Sichuan. Such disputes are common and bystanders often side with the vendors and accuse police of heavy-handed tactics. Read the full report.