Saturday's attacks on the mines, in Nayong county in southern China's destitute Guizhou province, left nine miners injured including six who were hospitalized with serious bruising, the Guizhou City Daily reported.

As the 200 men swarmed with makeshift weapons, it became clear that their main motive was the mines' recent takeover by businessmen from neighboring Hunan province, the paper said.

The armed men shouted, "Guizhou people, stand to one side," and started beating wildly anyone who appeared to be speaking with a Hunan accent, the paper said.

Windows and doors were smashed, electric wires severed and furniture overturned and damaged, according to a journalist who visited the area.

The journalist quoted several Hunan workers as saying they planned to return to their home province after the attack.

Violence between people from different provinces in China is not frequently reported in state-run media, probably because of the sensitivity of the issue in a society bent on preserving stability.

However, people from various parts of China often differ in terms of language, food and customs as much as nationals from different European countries.

In a separate incident, one villager was killed and another injured when a dispute over a coal mine in Hunan province ended in violent clashes this week.

The owner of the mine, near Sangzhi county's Shanghexi township in a remote part of the province, was beaten up by local residents on Sunday, a county police officer surnamed Gong told AFP.

The owner's brother and other relatives decided to retaliate and attacked the villagers, beating one of them so badly that he died, according to the police officer.

"What they did violated the law, so local police and government organized an investigation team," said Gong.

He said a number of people had been detained, but he did not know how many.

The police officer said the villagers, who had rented the land to the coal mine owner, wanted more compensation to reflect the rising profitability of the mining business.

"When they didn't get it, they attacked the miners' houses and stopped production at the coal mine. The owner was beaten up several times," said the police officer.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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