21 dead in anti-China riots

Up to 21 people were killed in Vietnam, a doctor said, and a huge foreign steel project was set ablaze as anti-China riots spread to the centre of the country a day after arson and looting in the south.

The doctor at a central Ha Tinh province hospital said five Vietnamese workers and 16 other people described as Chinese were killed on Wednesday night in rioting, one of the worst breakdowns in Sino-Vietnamese relations since the neighbours fought a brief border war in 1979.