Police drew their guns to stop villagers from looting oranges that spilled from a fruit truck involved in an accident last week in China's northwest Gansu Province.
The accident occurred on Jan. 4 at around 11 a.m. local time when a semi-trailer truck loaded with oranges overturned close to a small farming village on the road to Lanzhou. The crash scattered crates of oranges across the road and onto the farm fields of villagers whose property borders the roadway.
As news of the crash spread, hundreds of villagers began arriving at the scene and started grabbing up as many of the scattered oranges as they could. According to reports, as more villagers came, the scene turned into a chaotic looting frenzy with villagers carrying away loads of looted oranges in any way they could. The few traffic police who responded to the accident were initially able to gain control of the scene and were able to contact a rescue vehicle and remove the crashed truck from the road. But as the police tried to help the truck driver guard the spill until assistance arrived, villagers rushed in again with empty bags, overwhelming the officers, to collect more oranges for themselves.
The police first demanded that villagers desist from continuing to loot the oranges but when that did not work, at least one of the officers pulled his gun and threatened to shoot any villager who continued. As more police arrived, they were able to regain control of the scene. Several villagers were detained for illegal behavior and some of the looted oranges were recovered.
According to news reports, this is not the first time this has happened. In recent years, there have been a number of similar "Chinese-style looting" incidents. Looters don't seem to mind what materials have been spilled and will run off with anything from fruits to umbrellas, beer or even toilet paper. Some law enforcement officers that have responded to such incidents admit to being at a loss on how to deal with the looting other than to threaten with violence.