Fears and tears in holy plateau city
Updated: 2008-03-17 06:36
LHASA - Dense smoke blanketed the sky as burning cars emitted an irritating smell amid the wailing of bloodshed.
A Tibetan teacher said she couldn't believe her eyes.
"I've never seen such cruelty before. How can anyone do something like this?" asked Zhayung, who works at the No 1 primary school in Lhasa. Her voice was still shaky and her complexion tinged with fear and sheer shock.
The school she worked at was among a range of targets damaged by saboteurs in the Tibetan capital on Friday afternoon.
Vandals carrying backpacks filled with stones and bottles of inflammable liquids smashed windows, set fire to vehicles, shops and restaurants along their destructive path.
Some rioters wielded iron rods, wooden sticks and long knives, randomly assaulting passersby, sparing neither women nor children.
"Classes were cancelled," Zhayung said. "I managed to escape from the school and hide in the building across the street, but some of my colleagues were stranded in the school for the whole night until police came to their rescue."
For many Lhasa residents such as Zhayung, March 14 stopped being just another Friday - it was a day when the capital was left in chaos after an outburst of beatings, vandalism, looting and burning, which officials say was "masterminded by the Dalai clique".
The Tibet regional government said on Saturday at least 10 people were killed, including several from burns and gunshot wounds. Police managed to rescue more than 580 people, including three Japanese tourists, from attacks.
Sources told Xinhua that rioters had ransacked at least 100 shops. The four-storey Landun shopping mall in the old city center, which sold children clothes, was engulfed in flames sparked by the horde.
Its owner, Ye Danping, and her 20 Tibetan employees were lucky to survive after scrambling onto the roof of the building.
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