Protest outside factory in east China

BEIJING - Rioters clashed with police at a garment factory in eastern China after protesting to find out why a teenager jumped from a fourth-floor window in the factory, a human rights group said Friday.

The clashes broke out as police tried to disperse a growing crowd watching as family members and villagers threw stones at the factory in Ningbo province's Xiangshan county, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

It said the family members believed the 14-year-old boy, who had run away from home, was beaten by security guards and frightened into jumping. The boy broke his leg. It did not say why he was in the factory.

The rights group said at least 20 migrant workers were injured and 10 detained during the protest Thursday. It said the police issued a notice calling on those involved in the clash to turn themselves in.

An article on the Ningbo government's media Web site said Yang Xunzhao jumped off from the fourth floor of the factory Wednesday after he was found hiding there by factory workers. Yang had left home after an argument with his parents, it said.

It did not say there had been a clash, but said about 100 relatives and others from his village went to the factory demanding the workers pay for Yang's medical care, saying they frightened him into jumping. The crowd grew to more than 500, some who smashed windows in the factory, the Web site said.

A man in the propaganda department of the Xiangshan county Communist Party, who gave only his surname Xu as is common among Chinese officials, said there were clashes between the boy's relatives, villagers and police. But he denied that hundreds were involved, saying only dozens protested. He said fewer than 10 people were detained and the family was happy with Yang's medical care.

Riots and protests are common in rural areas of China, fueled by increased unhappiness over official corruption, land grabs and a growing gap between the rich and poor.

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