Shop attack 'linked to rent row'

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-11-10 13:36

Liu Ailing, a drug store owner, shows how a group of people raided her store early Sunday morning.

Some shop fronts have been attacked with axes and hammers twice in two days, in what tenants say is a dispute linked to unpaid rent.

The tenants in the Shunyi district residential complex were last attacked yesterday afternoon, although police say it is unclear who is responsible.

The first attack happened on Sunday at 1.30 am, when more than 100 men destroyed about 20 stores. The men, some dressed in security guard uniforms, carried hammers and axes, witnesses said.

"I was woken up in the early morning by a loud knocking on the door," said Liu Ailing, owner of a drug store.

"When I opened it a group of men forced entry and in a matter of seconds they smashed everything in the shop, and even beat me and my husband."

Liu said the men showed up again yesterday afternoon and tried to destroy what was left in the drug store. She called the police and those men were detained.

Liu said the men told police that they were employed by the property management company to intimidate the store tenants.

Several tenants told METRO they owed rent to the property company, but said it was because of slow business in the area.

They said the daily turnover was far from enough to pay the rent, and that the buildings suffered numerous problems, including water leakage.

"We complained many times but no one helped or compensated us. We also tried to talk to the property company so that we could work out a way to end the dispute, but they never listened." Liu said.

Han Xianqiang, manager of the commercial department of the property company, denied the firm was responsible for the attack, but insisted the tenants owed the company millions of yuan in rent.

"We don't know who did that either. Maybe the tenants planned the attack themselves so as to shirk from the debt," he said.

Zhan Naiding, owner of a nearby restaurant, said she received threats from the property management before the attack. She said she was told if tenants did not pay the rent, they would be punished.

"It's just horrible to think that those men were bold enough to attack people in open defiance of the law," Zhan said.

"Even more unbelievable was that the police told us it was only an economic dispute and was not a criminal offense."

Police of Shunyi district yesterday refused to comment.