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Protestor sets fire to himself
20/07/2006 15:29 - (SA)
Beijing - A Chinese migrant worker set fire to himself in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on Thursday, suffering serious burns before police stopped his apparent self-immolation attempt, police said.
Wang Cong'an, 53, poured petrol onto himself and set light to it just before 09:00 in the square, the Beijing municipal police said in a statement.
Police and security guards patrolling the square went to extinguish the fire as soon as they saw it and rushed Wang to hospital, where he was "out of danger", the statement said.
Wang was a migrant worker from the eastern province of Jiangsu.
He set light to himself because of a dispute over money with a construction company in the central province of Hubei, it said.
Wang travelled to Beijing from Hubei's Yichang city to "appeal to the higher authorities to help him get back delayed salary," the official Xinhua news agency quoted police as saying earlier.
Protests in square
Police in Tiananmen Square, the symbolic centre of Beijing, are on constant alert for protests or self-immolation attempts.
Fire engines and fire extinguishers have been kept in the square since seven alleged members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement set fire to themselves there in January 2001.
Tiananmen Square was also the focus of China's 1989 pro-democracy protests, which ended after the ruling Communist Party sent troops to disperse the protestors, killing hundreds of people in Beijing. - Sapa-dpa
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