By Liz Lee
BEIJING (Reuters) – A group of people clashed with police in China’s northwestern Shaanxi province in a rare protest outside a vocational school where a student died earlier in the month, according to videos on social media.
Reuters verified from several videos on social media platform X that the clash took place at the new campus of Pucheng County Vocational Education Center. The date of the incident could not be ascertained from the videos.
Two of the videos showed dozens of police officers in riot gear retreating from an angry crowd that was flinging rods and other objects at them.
In another clip, a few police officers rushed to grab a woman while another policeman a few metres away repeatedly hit a man with his baton when the man approached him.
The public security bureau in Weinan, the city governing Pucheng county, did not immediately respond to a request to confirm the details in the videos.
Pucheng authorities in a Jan. 5 statement said a student surnamed Dang died at the campus of Pucheng County Vocational Education Center after falling from a building.
A joint investigation team put together for the case ruled out any crime, and informed the student’s family of their conclusion.
Dang was found dead by another student at 3 a.m. on Jan. 2, according to the investigation team’s statement.
Dang was in an altercation with another student late the night before, the statement said.
The public security authorities had conducted on-site investigations, reviewed surveillance footage, conducted interviews, and performed an external examination on the body, the investigation team said.
New-York based Human Rights In China said the protest was due to the death of the 17-year-old student, according to its post on X on Jan. 7.
It said the family of the deceased student was prohibited from checking their child’s corpse for any traumatic injuries, and were told the school’s surveillance system was damaged after demanding to see security footage.
The family claimed photos from the student’s mobile phone had also been deleted.
“These actions triggered public speculation that the school was trying to cover up the truth,” the group said.
Weinan’s public security bureau did not immediately respond to a request to confirm whether the protest was related to the details mentioned by Human Rights In China.
Reuters could not reach the Weinan police nor the vocational school for comment.
(Reporting by Liz Lee and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
