Suspects identified in police station attack

KUNMING - Police in southwest China's Yunnan Province have identified 16 suspects in a violent attack on a local police station last week, local authorities said on Wednesday.

The suspects are believed to be among some 100 residents of Baha Village in Babao Township who raided the Babao police station at 12:50 p.m. on Friday, according to a statement from the publicity office of Guangnan County, which administers Babao Township.

The rampage, resulting in injuries to two government employees and a villager, came after three villagers were summoned to the police station on Friday morning in connection to earlier vandalism at a local factory, said the statement.

On February 3, around 100 Baha villagers destroyed manufacturing facilities at the Jiangnan iron and alloy factory over an environmental dispute, it said.

Following the police station assault, a work team dispatched by the county government ordered the factory to move out of the village within a year after consulting villagers. The factory's operation was suspended by authorities in October 2013.

The work team is conducting "legal education" in the village, encouraging those who participated in the Friday attack to turn themselves in to police.