(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-04-11 21:15

The Police Headquarter Command Post in the county was the first target of the rioters, said Wang.

Scraps of a burnt fire engine, which is the only one in the small county, stood in the garage of the headquarters building. The vehicle was torched along with five other police cars in the riot.

"There were ten police on duty in the building that day. They were driven to the third floor, and some of them were forced to jump out of the building from there," said Wan. Twelve policemen and three firemen were injured.

"I saw rioters surround a police officer, beat him on the head and try to stab him with knives. I rushed to stop them and shielded the injured man with my body," said Cuchim Gyamco, a Tibetan monk from a subsidiary of Labrang Lamasery in Gansu.

Cuchim was an intern at the county hospital, which is opposite the police building. He begged the rioters for mercy, and managed to  take the injured policeman to a safe place for treatment.

Ma Gahu, a Muslim restaurant owner said he was also helped by a Tibetan friend to escape danger in the riot. His restaurant was looted and smashed.

The destruction caused by rioters in Maqu impressed more than 20 Chinese and foreign journalists in the media group invited by the Information Office of China's State Council, who arrived in the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, where Maqu is, on Wednesday morning for a four-day trip.

"It is regrettable to see the result of people's hard work destroyed, no matter what ethnic groups they are from," said Lucy Hornby, a Reuters reporter.

Konstantin Shepin from Russian News and Information Agency said that based on what he saw in Maqu, the rebuilding work is hard in such a remote county.

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