A village deputy Party chief has been suspended from his post and placed under investigation after trucks dumped mud beside the gate of a market, burying a market worker up to his waist, on Friday in the Jiang'an district of Wuhan, Hubei Province, according to a post published Monday on the Sina Weibo account of Houhu sub-district office.

The post said that the Dijiao Flower, Bird and Pet Market recently constructed some illegal buildings, and local law enforcement workers had sent a letter to the management office of the market demanding that the buildings be destroyed.

The post claimed that the market operators had entered into a verbal agreement but still constructed the building.

The market is located in an area slated for a residential development called Xingfu village, and the post from the sub-district office claimed that some villagers have expressed concern that the dispute might affect their compensation agreements, which is why 100 of them went to the site on Friday to dump mud.

A report in the Nandu Daily pointed out that there had been disputes between the villagers and the market regarding the levels of compensation the village had received, and over the area that the market was occupying.

When villagers were dumping the mud, some workers from the market tried to stop them, and a worker, Li Jiguang, was buried up to his waist.

Police on the site persuaded people to carry Li out and send him to a local hospital, and confirmed that Li had a clear mind at the time, the online post said, adding that doctors said he only suffered bruises.

After the case, local police and the sub-district office urged the Xingfu villagers to move the mud on the same day.

The deputy Party chief of the village, Wang Zhiming, was suspended from his post, and has been put under investigation.

However, the post also noted that law enforcement workers will destroy the illegal buildings in the market according to the law.

Global Times