New | Datong residents locked up for celebrating graft probe into Party official with fireworks

Police in the northern Chinese city of Datong have detained at least 10 people after they celebrated the sacking and corruption investigation of the city's top official by lighting fireworks and singing the national anthem.

The detained local residents were each locked up for three to 15 days for “disrupting social order” and then released, reported thepaper.cn, a political news portal run by the state-owned Shanghai United Media Group.

Zhao Yunxiao, a 53-year-old Datong resident who said he had received an administrative detention of 15 days after bringing national flags to celebrations in front of the city's Communist Party office on October 15, has issued a statement online threatening to sue the police.  

Party graft inspectors said on October 15 that Feng Lixiang, the 57-year-old Communist Party secretary of Datong, was investigated on suspicion of corruption, only one day after he chaired an anti-corruption meeting.

The announcement seemed to have energised Feng's critics in the city, and large crowds soon gathered in front of the local Communist Party headquarters, with many residents setting off fireworks, singing the national anthem, and parading with banners which praised the Party and condemned corrupt officials.

Some were hauled away by police from the scene, according to media reports.