July 5 riot "far beyond ordinary violent matter"

• Source: Xinhua
• [08:55 July 19 2009]
• Comments

PROFESSIONAL AND CRUEL

In interviews, reporters found the main attacking method during the unrest was to hit people in the head with wood clubs and stones.

According to several local hospitals which received injured people during the riot, most of the patients had serious head injuries, and those who died were also due to head injuries.

Photos from the local police also showed that many victims were lying beside scattered stones and bricks -- some were as large as a watermelon.

Transportation facilities were also one of the main targets.

Sources with the Urumqi Bus Group told Xinhua that a total of 28 buses were burned and 266 got smashed. The damaged vehicles accounted for one tenth of the company's total.

A worker from a bus station which was attacked recalled that some misdoers had set up road-blocks in several main streets and they were "very good at driving" and familiar with the structure of vehicles.

Sources with the Urumqi Bus Group said at about 9:30 p.m., a group of thugs rushed into the company's yard and took out the electrical wires from the circuit board and started the vehicles. They drove the vehicles to crash the telegraph pole to which a monitor camera was attached.

Witnesses also said that many burned gas-fired vehicles were first ignited from the rear end of the buses where the gas tank was located.

Many company workers were shocked that the misdoers knew so much about their vehicles and said some of the knowledge could only be acquired through professional trainings.

They recalled that in the last two years, some young men were practicing to drive vehicles every night in the area around the bus station. Many workers on night shift heard the noises of engines and screeching sound.