CHINESE VIOLENT PROTEST OVER SCHOOLING

BEIJING : Police in central China have detained 46 people who were part of a protest against a  government plan to address over crowded classrooms that escalated into violence.

Police in the city Leiyang in Hunan province said on their official microblog that the people were detained early Sunday as officers dispersed around 600 protesters who had gathered outside the local police station on Saturday night.

They said some of the protesters hurled plastic bottles, bricks, fire crackers and beer bottles, injuring more than 30 police and auxiliary police officers and damaging several vehicles.

Police attributed the violence to ''good for-nothings'' who were looking for trouble.

An official at the Leiyang city government who would only give his surname, Zeng, said the parents were protesting the city government's plan to transfer students from overcrowded public schools to expensive private schools.

Some parents were concerned that their children were exposed to toxic formadehyde fumes at the dormitory to which they were being transferred, he said

The protests began early on Saturday with parents gathering and hoisting banners outside  six local schools and the city's Communist Party committee building and blocking roads.[AP]