Peace has returned to the streets and traffic has resumed smoothly in Phan Thiet city in the south central province of Binh Thuan in the morning of June 11^th after authorised forces worked all night to disperse incited crowds around the headquarters of the provincial People’s Committee.

Some extremists burn motorbikes at the Department of Planning and Investment of Binh Thuan province on late June 10^th. (Photo: VNA)

The disturbance began at about 5pm of June 10^th when a group of people gathered and moved from Phan Thiet Market to the provincial People’s Committee building to protest draft law provisions on special administrative-economic units and leasing land at the units for up to 99 years.

They shouted and jostled police and guards of the building and incited bystanders to attack police with bricks and stones.

The disorder reached its peak when hundreds of people threw stones at the headquarters of the Binh Thuan People’s Committee. Some even attacked police with homemade petrol bombs, stones and some other tools, and destroyed the fence and burned the sentry box and several rooms of the sentry force. They also damaged the fence around some other provincial agencies.

Traffic near the administration’s headquarters was paralysed while over 15 motorbikes were burned down and many facilities were destroyed.

Police were sent to the site, and the crowd was only dissolved by about 2am of June 11^th.

Some extremists were arrested to serve an investigation into the incident.

Also on June 10^th, the National Highway 1A in Phan Ri town of Tuy Phong district was blocked as dozens of people gathered on the road to object to the draft provision on 99-year land lease, causing a traffic congestion that stretched several kilometres. When the police came, many in the crowd threw stones at the police and broke the glass of many trucks on the road.

By around 2am of June 11^th, the crowd on National Highway 1A in Phan Ri town was dissolved, and traffic returned to normal.

According to the Binh Thuan Department of Public Security, some police officers were slightly injured while on duty, but there were no deaths in the incidents.

The provincial People’s Committee is calling on local residents not to follow extremists’ incitement which could violate law and disrupt security and order.

Investigations into the incidents are underway./.

VNF/VNA