Monday, February 9, 2009

Vietnam: Nine Detained Over Bird Flu Fracas

HANOI, VIETNAM: Vietnamese police detained nine people suspected of having led a mob of villagers who prevented authorities last week from destroying chickens to stop the spread of bird flu, authorities said Monday (9 Feb).

The nine villagers were detained Saturday (7 Feb) in Thuong Tin district just outside Hanoi where the brawl occurred Thursday (5 Feb), said Nguyen Van Phuong, the district police chief. They could face charges of "openly appropriating property," he said, an offense that carries up to three years in prison.

Police in Vietnam can hold suspects up to nine days without charges.

Dozens of villagers in Thuong Tin overwhelmed police and health authorities Thursday and stopped them from destroying about 1,500 chickens smuggled in from China, officials said.

As authorities removed the poultry from a truck to burn them in a pit, the villagers _ desperate for the income the birds could provide _ grabbed the chickens and ran off, they said.

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