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14 arrested over unrest after chef's death

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-08-05 10:07

WUHAN: Fourteen people have been arrested for allegedly disrupting public order and traffic after a civil disturbance triggered by a chef's death in central China's Hubei Province, local authorities said Tuesday.

Related readings:  Party chief sacked for mishandling chef's death  Autopsy: Chef committed suicide; corpse cremated  Cook killed self: autopsy  Probe to examine cook's death  Cook's family to get compensation

The 14 include the brother and a cousin of the 24-year-old Tu Yuangao, whose death sparked a civil unrest in mid-June in Shishou City, said Liu Runchang, a spokesman of the municipal government.

Another 17 people had been put in police custody.

Tu's body was found lying at the gate of the Yonglong Hotel in Shishou on the evening of June 17.

Police found no suspicious injuries. An initial investigation found that the chef had killed himself by falling from a high building, which sparked doubt and anger among Tu's family and the public.

The hotel was burnt and several vehicles were smashed in the unrest.

Experts from the Ministry of Public Security and Tongji Medical Institute carried out an autopsy and X-rays and tested for poisons, showing Tu committed suicide.