EJIN BANNER, China, Dec. 6 (UPI) — A 100-strong mob attacked a checkpoint in China’s Inner Mongolia region Sunday, injuring more than a dozen people while destroying and stealing property.
The attack occurred in Ejin Banner county, near the border with Mongolia. The BBC reported the attackers, armed with pepper spray and sticks, beat staff and used construction equipment to destroy buildings before escaping.
At least 13 people were injured in the incident, and the attackers are reported to have stolen mobile phones, cash and other valuables. Police are searching for the suspects, whose motive is not known.
Massive mob attacks in China are reported periodically. In June, hundreds of protesters attacked a police station in central China’s Hunan province over a dispute stemming from the death of a 28-year-old woman. In July 2014, a mob carrying knives and axes targeted civilians, a police station, government offices and vehicles in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, where tensions between Uighur Muslims and Chinese Han run strong.
The Inner Mongolia region has seen past tensions between minority ethnic Mongolians and Han Chinese. In April, 100 people were injured and one person was killed when more than 1,000 villagers clashed with 2,000 riot police during protests over pollution from nearby chemical plants.
In 2011, demonstrators in Inner Mongolia clashed with riot police over the killing of two ethnic Mongolians at the hands of Chinese workers, as well as the environmental costs of mining coal and other materials from the resource-rich region.
“Our situation is just like the ones in Xinjiang and Tibet,” a Mongolian shopkeeper told The Wall Street Journal at the time. “Ours just isn’t as severe.”
