BEIJING, July 28 (Reuters) - Police in southern China have detained a government official whose suspected killing of a disabled fruit vendor sparked a riot this week, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.
State media said thousands of people gathered on the streets of Anshun in Guizhou province on Tuesday, throwing stones at police and overturning a government vehicle, in the latest incident of social unrest in the world's second-largest economy.
The riot was sparked after urban management officers -- a quasi-police force that enforces laws against begging and other petty offences -- were suspected of beating the vendor to death.
Xinhua named the detained city management officer as Wang Sheng.
He is "suspected of beating street vendor Deng Qiguo during a dispute, according to police investigators. The beating might be linked to the man's death, they added", the report said.
Deng "was selling fruit near a marketplace entrance when city management officers, including Wang, were conducting checks for illegal streetside vending operations," Xinhua added.
"According to investigators, the dispute started when Wang took away Deng's fruit cart while the vendor rushed to stop him."
Around 30 protesters and 10 police officers were injured in the resulting unrest. Hong Kong media said police had to use water cannot to quell the disturbance.
Xinhua said police were still investigating the exact cause of Deng's death, and are questioning a total of six city management officers.
In 2008, crowds stormed police and government headquarters in another part of Guizhou after allegations spread that police had covered up the rape and murder of a local teenage girl, seeking to protect the son of a local official.
China's stability-obsessed rulers are nervous about any sort of protest or unrest.
Earlier this month, a court in the southern export hub of Guangdong province jailed 11 people for their roles in riots that hit a city there in June. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
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