From square to station ...

Around 2 pm on that Monday, the crowd marched to the police station, Ma said. Several hundred people tried to smash it while others watched. About 20 police officers are assigned to the police station but not all of them were on duty that day.

Even the old police station, which is not in service anymore, was attacked. As chief of the county seat's only police station, Ma said he felt extremely angry and sad that the national emblem hanging at the entrance was reduced to pieces by the mob.

Rioters smashed police cars and firefighting vehicles, threw gas bottles at the police cars, and broke the station's windows using batons and stones, Ma said. Then they attacked police officers. Some tried to grab guns from the armed officers, ignoring repeated appeals and warnings from the police.

"It is organized crime targeting government bodies," Ma said. "The initial evidence showed that the riots and assaults were well planned beforehand and instigated by trained separatists against the country."

One rioter died and 10 police officers and firefighters were injured. Thirty-one people were arrested.

Ma Jiankang stands amid damage that rioters caused on Jan 23 in Luhuo, Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Sichuan province. [Photo by Feng Yongbin / China Daily]